The Weekend at a Glance
Victory Athletics Spirit runs the Checkered Flag Championship at the Indiana Convention Center on Saturday, January 9, 2027. The venue lists the event in Exhibit Hall A with a forecast attendance of 450.
The organiser's own event page carries the date and the line “More Information Coming Soon!” No session grid, no doors time and no division order are published. The venue's calendar records the day as an all-day entry.
The venue's calendar carries a second event on January 9, 2027. The Whitetail Film Tour shares the date.
Two Deadlines Before the Trip
The organiser's coaches' page prices a late payment. A $125 fee applies from the tenth day before the event if the team is not fully paid, and a second $125 applies to a payment made on the day before or the day of the event. The tenth day before January 9, 2027 is Wednesday, December 30, 2026.
The same page prices a $100 change fee for division, level or score sheet changes requested after the first preliminary schedule is released, which it puts eight days before the event. That release date is Friday, January 1, 2027. Payment and roster edits land before December 30, and the first schedule arrives on January 1.
The Friday Night Room and the Skywalk Route
The venue counts 7,100 hotel rooms in downtown Indianapolis and 4,700 of them connected to the Convention Center by skywalks. Visit Indy, the city's convention and visitors bureau, publishes the roster behind that connection: twelve hotels and 5,200 connected rooms once Signia Hilton Indianapolis opens, with a room count for each property.
The bureau's list runs from the JW Marriott Indianapolis at 1,005 sleeping rooms, Signia Hilton Indianapolis at 803, Indy Marriott at 650, The Westin Indianapolis at 575, Hyatt Regency Indianapolis at 499, Embassy Suites Indianapolis Downtown at 360 and Crowne Plaza Indianapolis Downtown Union Station at 273 to Conrad Indianapolis at 247, Courtyard, SpringHill Suites and Fairfield Inn & Suites at 621 combined, and Le Méridien Indianapolis at 100.
Two details matter for a family. The Hyatt Regency has direct connections to both the Convention Center and Circle Centre mall. The Crowne Plaza sits in the nation's first union station, and 26 of its rooms are Pullman traincar sleepers on the original tracks.
The venue publishes one rule for the route. Skywalk and facility hours are event-dependent, with lock-down in the evening at approximately 11:00 p.m. and re-opening at approximately 6:00 a.m.
The bureau also counts more than 10,000 rooms within walking distance of the Convention Center once the downtown pipeline is built out. That covers a family whose first skywalk property is full.
One Free Evening of Walkable Dining
The venue's dining guide states that downtown alone holds more than 200 restaurants. Visit Indy publishes a kid-friendly list, and three entries on it sit inside a mile of the Convention Center at 100 South Capitol Avenue. The distances below are straight-line between the published addresses.
The Old Spaghetti Factory at 210 South Meridian Street is 0.30 miles away. Children eat in a railroad car or in oversized Victorian velvet chairs, and the spumoni is complimentary. Taxman CityWay at 310 South Delaware Street is 0.48 miles away, a gastropub and beer garden in an 1850s livery building with a pet-friendly patio. BRU Burger Bar at 410 Massachusetts Avenue is 0.89 miles away, and its children's meal is $6 with an entree, fries and a soft drink.
Arriving, Parking and the Last Mile
The venue counts 15 minutes to Indianapolis International Airport. The airport's Ground Transportation Center sits on the first floor of the Terminal Garage, and it connects to bus service, car rental, taxi service, rideshare and hotel courtesy vehicles.
Denison Parking operates all Indiana Convention Center and Lucas Oil Stadium lots. The venue states that downtown holds more than 70,000 parking spaces, and it recommends reserving and pre-paying online for either facility.
The Maryland Street canopy is the recommended taxi point, and the venue warns that access to it can be restricted during certain events. IndyGo runs the city bus network, and its Open Door service covers ADA paratransit.
Check-In Rules That Apply to Parents
The organiser issues coaches' bands only to registered coaches with an approved background check uploaded and government identification that matches the name in RegChamp. Every coach shows government identification at coaches' check-in. Junior coaches under 18 are exempt from the background check, and each must be an event athlete or show photo or school identification.
The coaches' page lists five accepted checks: USASF Greenlight, a USA Cheer card, a current background check from a place of employment, a teacher's current school ID, or a check through clearchecks.com. Paper copies are not accepted at the event.
Team and athlete waivers are signed in RegChamp, and the registration needs a parent's email address. Two coaches per team are free, and each additional coach costs $25.
All information for a team must be in RegChamp before the event. The coaches' checklist names the roster, division, level and score sheet, the invoice, the music licenses and the waivers.