INDIANAPOLIS – The cavernous football stadium is finished. The retractable roof now opens to let in warm summer air. And a city is pinning its tourism future on what happens inside.

This is Indianapolis today and Arlington in a year.

The debut of the Colts' Lucas Oil Stadium on Sunday night means that the new Dallas Cowboys stadium will be the next stop in the National Football League's steady march to replace the old with the new. And these past few months of preparation in Indianapolis could give a hint about the pace of the beautification, revitalization and economic development that might be headed to Arlington.

"Any time you have a project of such scale, everything has to be overhauled around the stadium," said Paul Okeson, chief of staff for Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard. "It's fairly tricky from a construction perspective."

He said that staff has spent countless hours readying the city, but, surprisingly, the frantic work outside the $720 million stadium has slowed this summer. The past years of intensive planning and construction, from streets to sewers, gave way to cleaning and road touch-ups.

Johnnie Worthington, 50, possibly the closest resident to the stadium, said she's been amazed at how its opening has lit a fire under City Hall. She said that curbs at some intersections and manhole covers were replaced, security cameras now monitor the area and street sweepers have become a neighborhood fixture – even during a recent rain shower. When workers blacktopped the street in front of her house, Ms. Worthington said it was done in less than 24 hours.

"I probably live in the cleanest and safest neighborhood in the city," she said, sitting on her porch.

That kind of attention wasn't always common in the southwestern corner of downtown where Ms. Worthington's neighbors include a welding shop, a bean factory and now the red brick-and-glass giant, which was inspired by Indiana field houses and football stadiums from a century ago. Both Lucas Oil Stadium and the new Cowboys stadium were designed by Dallas-based HKS Architects, but the Arlington stadium has a more modern design and a footprint more than one-quarter larger.

Trey Yelverton, an Arlington deputy city manager, said there's no specific plan to spruce up the surrounding areas by next summer. But he said there are plenty of beautification components already a part of the stadium construction, road improvements and Johnson Creek restoration. Also, he said that a community cleanup effort – similar to what happened when the Texas Rangers hosted the baseball All-Star game in 1995 – could precede the 2011 Super Bowl.

Arlington beat Indianapolis for the right to host Super Bowl XLV in 2011, but the Colts won the game for the following year.

Although the cleanup in Indianapolis proceeded smoothly, there were glitches in getting people into the stadium for the earliest events and preseason games. Lt. Jeff Duhamell, a police spokesman there, said that no matter how much planning went into stadium preparations, problems were inevitable.

At the first preseason game, too many Colts fans tried to use a single entrance when there wasn't a wait at other gates. Inside, police officers were still trying to get their bearings in the new stadium, Lt. Duhamell said.

"The same thing happened when the RCA Dome opened," he said about the Colts' old stadium. "It took every bit of a half a season for people to get comfortable."

Lt. Duhamell said the VIP and construction parties, high school football games and stadium tours were valuable run-throughs for the officers. He said he'd advise the Cowboys to have several smaller events as a trial run before trying to accommodate the chaos that can accompany a sellout crowd for a football game.

Cowboys officials have said they want to have a series of large concerts at the stadium next summer, but there are no definite plans. It wasn't clear what other events might precede the team's home opener in Arlington, which would likely attract 80,000 fans.

Although the industrial areas surrounding Lucas Oil Stadium are a little cleaner, the president of the nearby bean factory said the transformation hasn't been dramatic. There are few places for tourists other than the paid parking springing up in the commercial lots, he said.

"The neighborhood hasn't changed that much since they broke ground," said Rick Hurst, president of N.K. Hurst Co. His company packs about 25 million bags of dried beans a year in a 102-year-old factory at the edge of a stadium parking lot.

There's a renovated sports bar just down the street and a pair of limited-service hotels that just opened. But the area immediately south of the stadium remains a patchwork of small houses and industrial buildings – with an emphasis on welding supplies and services. Towering tanks of industrial gases, including liquid oxygen and argon, stand within a short walking of the parking lots.

In Arlington, city leaders hope that the Cowboys stadium will anchor what's expected to become a dense, urban entertainment district. However, that could take years to happen.

The Glorypark mixed-used development, planned by Texas Rangers owner Tom Hicks, is on hold because of financing problems. Mr. Hicks also wants to build two big hotels, but construction hasn't started on those either. The stadium site is flanked by strips of aging businesses, office parks and a small neighborhood.

When the Cowboys take the field in Arlington next year, it's likely that the surrounding areas will have changed little except for some new roads and bridges and the addition of the stadium.

For Indianapolis officials, the slow pace of redevelopment isn't a worry.

"There is no silver bullet for downtown revitalization," said Tamara Zahn, president of Indianapolis Downtown Inc. "It just has to be a myriad of strategic decisions made over a period of time."

Roland Dorson, president of the Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, said there hasn't been an expectation that the Colts stadium would quickly transform the southern edge of downtown. That will likely come, but its greater value is as an extension of the convention center. The lowest rows of seats will retract under the stands and help create 183,000 square feet of floor space.

The RCA Dome, where the Colts began playing in 1984, will be demolished and an extension of the convention center will be built there. Tourism officials said this would allow them to stage two major conventions at the same time. Ms. Zahn said the flexibility of Lucas Oil Stadium would allow it to be booked at least 200 days a year, and convention center officials also said it will allow them to compete for more than 80 additional conventions that were previously out of their reach because of space constraints.

A convention center hotel also is under construction as part of the larger stadium project in Indianapolis.

In Arlington, tourism officials are discussing the possibility of a convention center hotel and expanded convention center. Details haven't been finalized or approved, and any project would be near the Cowboys stadium but wouldn't connect to it.

Wilbert Fulford, a 30-year resident of Indianapolis, said it would be hard to underestimate the importance of the Colts to his city or the potential importance of Lucas Oil Stadium. One of 80,000 people taking the first public tours of the stadium last month, he said that having an NFL team and now hosting a Super Bowl are highlights that get the attention of convention planners and corporate executives.

Before the Colts arrived, Mr. Fulford said that national weather maps featured St. Louis and Chicago but ignored Indianapolis. No more.

As he walked down the steps to stand on the Colts sideline for the first and possibly the only time, he said: "Everyone in the world now knows that Indianapolis exists."

Dallas Cowboys season ticket holders have until Sept. 30 to purchase the Texas Stadium seats they sit in during home games.

The team is selling stadium seats – for $650 a pair – that will be delivered after the Cowboys' last game in the legendary structure. Seats can only be purchased in pairs.

Non-season ticket holders also can purchase seats, though they won't have a choice on which of the stadium's more than 65,000 seats they get.

For an extra $100, non-season ticket holders can purchase aisle seats featuring the Dallas Cowboys star.

Sales include certificates of authenticity. Seats will be shipped as is.

As part of the team's exit agreement with Irving, which owns the stadium, about 10 percent of all memorabilia sales will go to the city. Irving also will retain about 1,000 stadium seats.

For details, visit dallascowboys.com/seats.