SPORTS: Sports questions of all sorts as I ponder the future-WEB ONLY

Questions that arise while pondering future ch-ch-chchanges in sports:

If we are seeing the beginning of the end of the internal combustion engine, how does that affect the Indianapolis 500 in particular and motorsports in general?

Will we see a day in which either hybrid, totally battery-powered, hydrogen-powered, or natural gas-powered vehicles line up on the grid for the Greatest Spectacle in Racing? Or, for that matter, the Brickyard 400 or MotoGP?

Will the Speedway, for years a testing ground that thrived on innovation, be on the cutting edge of new technology, or will it become an anachronism left behind by that technology?

Could we live without the sound? It was unsettling when Parnelli Jones drove the turbine-powered STP Lotus … a race car so quiet it was known as the “Whooshmobile.”

It’s been 13 years since we last heard the term, “It’s a new track record,” during the month of May, when Arie Luyendyk busted a qualifying lap run of 237.4 mph. Will we ever hear it again?

Who’s the next Roger Penske?

What really will be the end game of the Hulman-George family dispute and how might it affect not just the Speedway, but all of open-wheel racing?

How soon is the day when Honda battles Toyota and Hyundai for NASCAR supremacy?

What will happen to NASCAR when it finally sinks in to its fans that Dale Earnhardt Jr. is the most overrated driver on the planet?

Knowing that the 50-and-over set will play the U.S. Senior Open at Crooked Stick next month at a length approaching 7,300 yards, at what point does technology overtake the game and championship golf courses simply run out of real estate?

At what point will the next lords of Indiana high school basketball come along and say, if four classes are good, wouldn’t eight be better?

Will academic reform or rules adherence ever truly matter in the upper echelons of intercollegiate athletics or will it be sacrificed by the necessity to fill that 100,000-seat stadium with a winning program?

And speaking of 100,000-seat stadia, will there be an evolution into a superstrata of college conferences, reserved for the haves and excluding the have-nots?

In another way of putting it, how long can it remain fair-or realistic-for Northwestern (athletic department budget $41 million), or Indiana ($45 million) to compete against Ohio State ($110 million) and Michigan ($90 million)?

Where is the breaking point in the athletics arms race and will there come a time when the men’s basketball or football coach isn’t the highest paid public employee in a state or on a campus?

What’s the next breakthrough in stadiums and arenas that would render Lucas Oil Stadium or Conseco Fieldhouse obsolete? Remember, when they opened, Market Square Arena and the Hoosier Dome were state of the art.

Will Hinkle Fieldhouse, now in its 80th year, be in use for 80 more?

What becomes of the Colts after Bill Polian and Peyton Manning retire? Will this community support its NFL franchise through lean times because, mark my words, there will be lean times?

What becomes of the Pacers, period, when Herb Simon says he’s had enough? Can Danny Granger save the franchise the way Reggie Miller resurrected it? How long before the dunk is common in women’s basketball? Will we ever see mainstream acceptance of a women’s sports league … and by that I mean, where a championship has meaning to the country as a whole? How long before the average professional football offensive lineman weighs 400 pounds? Can Michael Phelps’ eight Olympic gold-medal performance ever be matched, let alone surpassed? If the extreme sports are extreme today, how extreme will they be in 20 years? Will the steroid cheaters always be one step ahead of the steroid cops? And, finally, the question that looms largest as we contemplate the future of sport: Will Brett Favre ever really retire? •

Benner is director of communications for the Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Association and a former sports columnist for The Indianapolis Star. His column appears weekly. Listen to his column via podcast at www.IBJ.com. He can be reached at bbenner@IBJ.com. Benner also has a blog, www.indyinsights.com.