The NCAA might expand its annual men’s tournament from the current three-week, 65-team format
to one featuring an added week and a whopping 96 teams. Proponents of the plan say it will generate a bigger
television rights-fee deal for the not-for-profit NCAA, which disperses 95 percent of the income to member institutions.
Officials for the Indianapolis Tennis Championships announced Friday afternoon that they have sold the sanctioning rights
for the local tournament back to the ATP Tour.
Sources told IBJ last week that the U.S. Tennis Association Southern Section was in serious negotiations to buy the event and move it to Atlanta.
Indianapolis was up against Dallas, Las Vegas, Orlando, Atlanta and New Orleans to host baseball’s Winter
Meetings, which
will draw more than 200 media members from the nation’s top 30 markets.
Officials with the Indianapolis Tennis Championships confirmed that they are selling the rights to host an annual
men’s professional tennis event that has roots in Indianapolis dating back to 1920.
The Indianapolis Tennis Championships—formerly known as RCA Championships—appear to be dead, with the ATP Tour
dates being shipped off to Atlanta for 2010 and beyond.
One of the legacies left behind by the late NCAA President Myles Brand is a 10-person startup company tucked in a high-rise
office building in downtown Indianapolis that is just starting to make its mark on the basketball world.
Lucas Oil Stadium suite holders are upset that the NCAA is taking their luxury boxes for the men’s basketball Final Four
in April and reselling them on the secondary—or scalpers—market.
Dramatic decreases in sponsorship and ticket revenue this year and the recent resignation of the Circle City Classic’s
new executive director have some questioning if the event can survive. Now Classic leaders are considering a bevy of bold changes.
The director of the Circle City Classic announced his resignation Monday, just four months after taking the job.
The prospect of a 2010 National Football League season without a players’ salary cap could cause high-profile free
agents for the Colts and other small-market teams to gallop off for greener pastures.
Indianapolis has been selected to host a regional round of the 2013 NCAA men’s basketball tournament, the NCAA announced
today.
A little more than six months before the 2010 NCAA men’s Final Four is set to tip off at Lucas Oil Stadium, the NCAA
has not yet finalized a rental deal for the facility. While officials for the NCAA and Local Organizing Committee,
the group charged with operating the event in Indianapolis, downplay any problems, sports business experts say it is unusual
not to have an agreement pinned down in the months leading up to the event.
The 2012 host committee recently hired South Bend native and Indiana University graduate Michelle Raines,
who previously served in senior management roles for four Republican national conventions.
The league that includes Butler University recently extended its sponsorship deal with the U.S. Army through the
2009-2010 academic year.
They used to say that downtown Indianapolis rolled up the sidewalks at 6 p.m. No one says
that anymore. Now they say those sidewalks need to be clean. Sidewalk cleanliness is important on a day-to-day
basis for aesthetic reasons, but even more so when Indianapolis wants to put on its best face for major events
like the Final Four, the Indianapolis 500 and the Super Bowl.
Locally based MZD Advertising has signed a contract to market sponsorships and a trade show for the Mizuno Volleyball Mid
East Qualifier, to be held in 2010 in Indianapolis and St. Louis.
IUPUI is grappling with how to pay for upkeep and improvements necessary to keep its three world-class athletic facilities—and
the city—in the hunt for high-profile sporting events.
The U.S. Senior Open Championship, which wrapped up yesterday, drew a total of 146,915 spectators
to Carmel’s Crooked Stick Golf Club for three days of practice and four days of tournament play.
Organizers of the 2009 U.S. Senior Open at Crooked Stick are sinking one birdie putt after another in their efforts to meet
their budget and draw strong crowds to central Indiana later this month. In this economy, sports marketers are calling ticket
and sponsorship sales for the tournament remarkable.
