The commitment carries dates
The NFL has committed the Scouting Combine to Indianapolis for 2027 and 2028. The Colts announced the extension on Jan. 21, 2026. The league has staged the event in the city every year since 1987, and the prior agreement expired after the 2026 Combine, which ran Feb. 23-March 2 at the Indiana Convention Center and Lucas Oil Stadium.
The league's own slate of important dates for the 2026-27 season carries the 2027 window: "March 1-8 - NFL Scouting Combine presented by Microsoft Copilot at Lucas Oil Stadium (Indianapolis, Indiana)." Both ends fall on a Monday. The run covers eight calendar days and seven nights.
The venue's own list is thin
Lucas Oil Stadium publishes its dated calendar over its events feed. A query of that feed for 2027 returns four records: Colts vs Jacksonville Jaguars on Jan. 9-10, Monster Jam Day 1 on Feb. 6, Monster Jam Day 2 on Feb. 7, and the Metallica M72 World Tour on June 5.
The feed carries no Combine record. The league names the stadium as the venue, and the stadium's public list names its own ticketed dates. None of the four falls within 22 days before the Combine open or 89 days after its close.
The league calendar closes in
The NFL dates four points around the window. Clubs may designate Franchise or Transition Players from Feb. 17 through 4 p.m. New York time on March 3, the third day of the eight. The negotiation period runs from 12:00 noon New York time on March 9 to 3:59:59 p.m. on March 11. The 2027 league year and the free agency signing period begin at 4 p.m. New York time on March 11.
The league states the compression in its own words: "In 2027, there will only be one day between the end of the combine (March 8) and the start of the negotiation period (March 9)." The same page records the span between the Combine and free agency as a full week in 2026.
The supply that opens first
The Indiana Convention Center's own news page reported on April 21, 2026 that the Signia by Hilton Indianapolis is taking reservations for stays beginning Feb. 1, 2027. The venue sizes the property at 800 rooms in that post and at 803 rooms on its expansion page. The hotel sits along the Georgia Street promenade in the Wholesale District and carries a direct skywalk link to the Convention Center, with Lucas Oil Stadium and Gainbridge Fieldhouse nearby.
The venue's expansion page dates the sixth phase to December 2026 and adds 143,500 square feet of flexible meeting space. The center counts 4,700 connected rooms at 12 hotels. The first stay night on offer, Feb. 1, 2027, lands 28 days before the Combine's Monday open.
Visit Indy attaches both projects to the award. The Colts' article quotes Visit Indy Executive Vice President and Chief Business Officer Chris Gahl: "We know the expanding Indiana Convention Center and new hotel inventory downtown helped keep this marquee event in Indy."
What no party has published
No room block, no rate, no cut-off date and no housing bureau for the 2027 edition appear on the league's slate, the Colts' pages or Visit Indy's Combine page. No group rate is published for the Signia's 90,000 square feet of meeting space. The Colts describe the movement the city handles each year as prospects, team owners, coaching staff, medical personnel and national media. That sentence carries no count.
The position
The date is committed twice over. The league has committed the city through 2028 and has published the window to the day. The stadium's own list shows four ticketed dates in 2027, and none of them falls inside the stretch either side of the Combine.
A buyer can treat the week as dated early-spring base demand. The corridor that carries it adds 803 skywalk-connected rooms four weeks before the open, because the Signia takes reservations from Feb. 1. Nothing published sets a floor, a ceiling, a release date or a cut-off for the week.
Two published items frame the negotiation. The one-day gap to the negotiation period moves the league's press and travel cycle out of the city on March 9, the morning after the close. The absence of any published room count means the pickup figure stays with the buyer.
Price the window from the city's own calendar. Treat the block as an unpublished term.