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SURF THIS: This Olympic year, NBC got it right-online and off

I already miss the Olympics. Perhaps due to my overactive patriotic gene, the overdeveloped sports fan gene, or the finetuned sucker-for-agood-story gene (or some combination of all three), I found the entire event strangely compelling. I’ve paid attention to the Olympics before, but this year it had some captivating affect on me that was altogether new. I found I could watch beach volleyball or fencing with equal enthusiasm. I watched handball matches (which was not at all the game I’d…

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Commentary: Summer mega-events consume us

Just when I thought I could start getting to bed at a decent hour again after the 2008 Olympics were over, up pops the Democratic National Convention from Denver. I’m not a television watcher. About the only things I find worthwhile on the boob tube are sports, PBS, movies, and arts or cultural programs. The occasional exception might include a cooking show. Like many Americans, I found myself watching the Beijing games late into the night for most of two…

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SPORTS: These football dreams give way to football reality

Ball State’s Nate Davis makes a run for the Heisman Trophy. Well, a guy can dream, can’t he? Truth is, all I’m hoping for at this juncture is that Peyton Manning is healthy for the season opener, Indiana (never look beyond the next play) gets past Western Kentucky, Purdue sends Joe Tiller into retirement on a winning note, Notre Dame rises above national scorn, and Davis becomes known outside the Midwest. In any case, I am definitely ready for some…

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Smaller Indiana gives cultural events a boost: Web site’s bloggers share IndyFringe experiences

With a mere $11,000 to spend on marketing, IndyFringe Executive Director Pauline Moffat is always on the lookout for low- or no-cost promotional opportunities. So when Pat Coyle, founder of online community smallerindiana.com, approached her about a novel arrangement to spread the word, Moffat jumped at it. The deal was this: The Fringe would give two tickets to each of its festival shows to Smaller Indiana, which would hand them over to members who would write blogs about the performances…

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IndyGo Colts shuttle a no-go

Congestion getting to the Indianapolis Colts games is as much a problem as congestion once fans are in the new Lucas Oil Stadium. It appears that traffic flow and parking are real issues…

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USATF putting customers first

The USA Track & Field headquarters in downtown Indianapolis is taking a cue from Wendy’s restaurants. They’re staying open late.

USATF’s new CEO Doug Logan said this is the first step in creating a…

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Fever pumps up attendance

The Indiana Fever re-start their season tonight with the hope of cranking up the team’s attendance even more than it has already elevated this year.

Through 13 homes games, the local WNBA team has…

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Olympics hurt IRL TV ratings

Officials for the Indy Racing League are probably happy the Olympics happen only once every four years. This year’s games in Beijing, IRL officials said, have done a number on their TV viewership lately.

The IRL’s Aug. 24 race in Sonoma…

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IRL revs effort to get in fans’ ears

Indy Racing League officials are unveiling a new communications system using Bluetooth technology that will beam audio messages straight into the wireless telephone earpieces of fans attending their races.

Fans at the track will…

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Favre hot on Manning’s heels

Believe it or not, there are a few people who actually don’t know anything about Peyton Manning. They wouldn’t know him if they saw him drinking Gatorade, and they wouldn’t know him with or without a fake mustache. They wouldn’t…

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Colts cuts not made on emotion

First and foremost Indianapolis Colts President Bill Polian is a businessman. And he’s one of the best in the National Football League. Don’t expect Polian to get too giddy over the extra bucks…

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NBC wins, Oprah seeks Olympians

This year’s Summer Olympics turned out to be a winner for NBC. Through Saturday night, NBC was averaging a 16.2 rating—meaning about 27.7 million viewers tuned in for its prime time coverage. Nationally, 28 percent of households on average tuned…

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IUPUI, Pacers negotiating deal

The IUPUI men’s basketball team appears headed across town to play home games at Conseco Fieldhouse. Officials for Pacers Sports & Entertainment said they would let IUPUI make any announcement.

University officials said an…

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Wet spring, slow economy slice into area golf business

On a typical Saturday at Smock Golf Course on the city’s south side, visitors are treated to a symphony of thwacks, pings
and the occasional plunk. In good or bad economic times, it seems, people in Indiana and across the country have always played
golf. But these days, the sound of that symphony has waned. Nationwide, the number of rounds of golf played through the first
half of this year is down 2 percent from last year. In Central Indiana, the situation is worse.

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NCAA mum on date to reopen fire-damaged Hall of Champions

Almost a full year after a fire in a single exhibit closed the NCAA Hall of Champions, the wait for the college sports
museum’s reopening is becoming as prolonged and agonizing as sitting through a college football game during
a freezing November rain. The NCAA is apparently in no hurry to relieve the suspense.

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NOTIONS: Got gold? Share the wealth with your Jason Lezak

Like hundreds of millions of other people around the world, I’ve been watching the Olympics on TV. Like most Americans among those viewers (especially NBC executives), I was pulling for swimmer Michael Phelps to win eight gold medals and surpass the record seven set by Mark Spitz in 1972. As everyone not buried under a rock knows by now, Phelps succeeded in his quest, but only by the narrowest of margins and only with considerable help from his teammates. Thus,…

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Firm helps area high schools sell themselves

Continental Enterprises, an intellectual property consulting firm, launched a service this summer to help area high schools register their logos, names and mascots as trademarks and establish licensing programs, assuring that schools will get a cut of all merchandise sales bearing their mark. This month, North Central High School, one of the state’s largest, signed with Continental, and six to eight more schools are expected to follow suit within 60 days.

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SPORTS: Let the ‘greatest athlete ever’ debate begin

Back from vacation with thoughts of this, that and the other: Even as my bride and I traveled through the magnificent scenery of Colorado, Wyoming and Montana, our nightly ritual was the same as that of millions of other Americans: making sure we were in front of the television to watch the Olympics. And yes, especially, Michael Phelps. Some have rushed to proclaim him the greatest Olympian of all time and, certainly, the argument can be made if you look…

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Harrison can catch, but won’t pitch

Marvin Harrison is a football superstar, but he sure isn’t a commercial superstar. Harrison had a deal with Degree antiperspirant in the late 1990s and another with the Got Milk campaign following the…

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Subway jilts Tony Stewart

NASCAR driver Tony Stewart is having a pretty bad week. During the same week Stewart was docked 150 points for his team’s efforts to mask his car’s true horsepower at a recent Nationwide…

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