A two-day championship and a May deadline
The Bands of America Indianapolis Super Regional Championship runs on 16 and 17 October 2026 at Lucas Oil Stadium, 500 South Capitol Avenue, Indianapolis. The organiser's event page lists both dates. The venue reports over 90 high school marching bands from 10 states.
The venue publishes the Friday clock. The ticket office opens at 6:45 a.m., the North Gate opens at 7:00 a.m., and the preliminaries start at 7:00 a.m.
Rooms for those dates run through one channel. Music for All's 2026 Fall Housing Bureau process states that all competing and exhibition bands and their booster groups using hotel accommodations must make their reservations through the Bands of America Housing Bureau. The same document states that a band which violates the policy will not be permitted to perform and forfeits all enrollment fees.
The bureau takes a room count before it names a hotel
Every participating band submits a Housing Preference Form, and the requirement covers bands that are not staying in a hotel. The bureau reads three inputs from that form. It takes the number of rooms needed and the room type, which the policy splits into king rooms and double/double rooms. It takes the length of stay in nights. It takes the group's preferred amenities, and the policy names breakfast, parking and a downtown or suburban location as examples.
The form was due 15 May at 11:59 p.m. EST for initial placement. Rooming lists stay out of that submission, and only the number of rooms the band anticipates needing is due at that point. The bureau states two goals: completed assignments by 15 July, and the whole group housing process finished by 1 September.
Where a large band gets split
A band that outgrows one property gets placed in two. The policy states that the rooms available at a single hotel cannot always hold an entire group, and that a split between two neighbouring hotels has become more common as bands grow.
Location decides the terms. Suburban hotels carry lower price points and limited room-type availability, and larger groups may be separated between neighbouring hotels or asked to accept a different room type. Parking follows the same geography. Every downtown hotel charges for parking at both full-service and select-service properties, and downtown properties cannot accommodate buses and charge for overnight vehicle parking. Suburban properties generally take buses and trucks at little to no additional cost.
One-night groups are the hardest to place. The policy states that a single-night stay may take more time to place.
The booking authorization form
The bureau's administrator is cmcglobal. Once a group and a hotel have agreed, cmcglobal sends the group a booking authorization form. A completed form authorises the group to book rooms at that property on the group's behalf. An email confirmation follows the hotel's finalisation, and the bureau then connects the group with its event contact at the property.
Rooming lists go to the hotel rather than the bureau, and cmcglobal supplies the template. Nolan Cummings administers the process at housing@musicforall.org or 317-635-4755.
The 45-day deadline and the 1 September release
Final rooming lists are due to the hotel 45 days before the arrival date. The date moves with the first night of the block. A Friday 16 October arrival puts the deadline on Tuesday 1 September, a Thursday 15 October arrival on Monday 31 August, and a Saturday 17 October arrival on Wednesday 2 September.
1 September carries a second meaning. The bureau states that after 1 September the administrator begins releasing remaining unused or unneeded contracted rooms for individual booking, at the administrator's discretion. A planner holding a Friday 16 October arrival therefore works against the rooming-list deadline and the release date on the same day.
The performance clock brings Thursday night into the plan. Preliminaries start at 7:00 a.m. Friday, so a band in the first block reaches the gate before dawn. A band that advances keeps the Friday night as well.
Cancellation terms to get in writing
The bureau publishes a cancellation ladder. A group may cancel rooms at any time before 45 days from arrival. A block reduction of more than 20 per cent could incur a penalty, and the document states that hotel policies vary by location. The bureau handles cancellation of an entire booking rather than the hotel. Individual room cancellations depend on the property, and the published rule of thumb is a request at least 72 hours before arrival. Additions can be made at any time before the event while the hotel has availability.
What to ask the hotel
The bureau's published documents carry no rate and no property count for this block. Ask the hotel to price the Thursday night and the Friday-to-Saturday nights separately, and to state the room-type mix it can hold at one property. Ask for the bus parking charge, the breakfast charge and the overnight parking charge in writing. Ask which arrival date the contract uses, because the rooming-list deadline and the cancellation cutoff both move by a day with that answer.
Planners can size the market first. The groupRooms directory lists 274 Indianapolis properties as of 23 September 2026, against 103,857+ hotels across 46 states on the platform.
