The deal to sell O’Reilly Raceway Park in Clermont is dead, and racing insiders said the opportunity to raise the local facility’s profile even higher might have died with it. Some within the racing community felt the suitor, a Santa…
The good news for Indiana and Purdue basketball fans is that there are a slew of games scheduled to be aired on a channel Indiana cable television operators actually carry.
The bad news is the Big Ten Network and Comcast Cable…
Two donors recently came forward to support the $82 million renovation of Purdue University’s Mackey Arena.
Tom Spurgeon, a 1961 alumnus and current Purdue trustee, has contributed $3 million toward the project. The gymnasium in the student-athlete academic center will be…
There’s been a lot of feedback regarding the article about the Indiana Pacers’ attendance problem that appeared in this week’s IBJ. A growing number of readers say they won’t be going to Pacers games anytime soon—even if the team starts…
Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard has made quite a production of putting together an executive team to study whether bidding to be the host of the 2012 Super Bowl is a worthwhile endeavor.
Some in the sports business sector are not quite…
Motorsports insiders have been skeptical
about Danica Patrick’s self-promotion plan ever
since she raced onto the open-wheel scene
more than five years ago.
From her spread in men’s magazine FHM to her
bad-girl persona, Patrick never has been afraid to shake…
The winds of optimism are blowing toward Indianapolis when it comes to hosting the 2012 Super Bowl.
New Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard this week plans to announce that Central Indiana Corporate Partnership CEO Mark Miles will lead an effort to study…
Yes, Tony, I knew it was you. I’m God, remember. Well, God, it’s that time of year again. End of the season. I’ve got you on my daytimer … in pen. Same time every year. The job, Tony? Yes, God, the job with the Colts. Do I stay or do I go? Well, Tony, as you know, I’m the Big Picture Guy. I can try to guide you, but I can’t tell you what to do. It’s that whole free-will…
The Indiana Pacers
have hit rock bottom. This month, the team slipped into last place in average home attendance among the 30 National Basketball
Association teams, falling behind the New Orleans Hornets, a team that is selling tickets in an area still ravaged by Hurricane
Katrina.
-Joni Mitchell, “Big Yellow Taxi” I’m dumbstruck by what I’m hearing and reading. (Probably more dumb than struck, you’re thinking.) Still, I have to ask: When did the Indianapolis Colts’ Tony Dungy become such a mediocre coach? When did he become a coach that, as some are expressing to owner Jim Irsay, is not worth fighting for, or at least making accommodations to retain? When did he become such a poor leader of a team that we should accept his…
The Pan Am Plaza building, constructed to provide office space for amateur sports organizations, may soon be losing three of its highest-profile tenants. USA Gymnastics, USA Diving and U.S. Synchronized Swimming are contemplating moving out of the building at 201 S. Capitol Ave., sources close to the organizations said. A fourth group, USA Track & Field, which is preparing to move from the RCA Dome, is considering joining the other three sports-governing bodies in shared office space-preferably downtown. USATF will…
In the aftermath of the Bowl Championship Series’ “championship” game, University of Georgia President Michael Adams didn’t just lob a grenade. He dropped a bombshell. Like many of his presidential colleagues, Adams has long been an opponent of the continued calls for major college football to go to some kind of national championship playoff. But on Jan. 8, just hours after two-loss LSU claimed the title with a one-sided victory over Ohio State, Adams unveiled a plan calling for an…
The handful of retailers who have persevered through hard times for Washington Square Mall felt encouraged in recent years as newcomers Steve & Barry’s University Sportswear and Buffalo Wild Wings arrived. But the holiday season brought grim news: Macy’s now plans to close, and Gap won’t be far behind. Besides Caramelcorn, MCL and change, few things have been constant at the east-side mall since it opened in 1974. The 965,000-square-foot mall was 21 percent vacant last year, the worst occupancy…
In a meeting that had more X’s and O’s than Indianapolis Colts Coach Tony Dungy’s game-day war room, FedEx District Sales
Manager Doug Knowles and his lieutenants decided which clients and prospective clients would be invited to the FedEx suite
which game, which FedEx employees would accompany them, and what ancillary activities would be planned.
When Marian College asked racecar driver Michael Crawford to help launch the school’s entrepreneur-in-residence program and mentor students about realworld business, he wasn’t sure if it was such a great idea. “My hesitation was I didn’t want to pursue it right away,” Crawford said. “What happens if I go out of business? That would be embarrassing.” But he decided to do it because he believes his experience as an entrepreneur is more realistic than anything the students will read about…
The spirit of the dearly departed Terry Hoeppner, if not his presence, was palpable during the New Year’s Eve Insight Bowl at Tempe, Ariz. Those footballshaped “Hep” buttons were ubiquitous. The phrases “Play 13” and “Don’t Quit” could be heard repeatedly. At a pre-game pep rally in a Tempe park, thousands of IU faithful gathered so the Indiana football team could honor Hep’s tradition of The Walk. IU’s new president, Michael McRobbie, led the players and coaches through the back-slapping,…
The Republican party dominated city government here in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, and for much of that time it was assumed that the party’s lock on city hall was tamper-proof. Voters proved that theory wrong in 1999. Whether it was changing demographics or the fatigue that sets in when one party rules for too long, the public turned the mayor’s office over to Democrat Bart Peterson. Four years later, Peterson easily won re-election and the Democrats won the City-County…
Well, the day is here when you finally get the keys to the offices on the 25th floor of the City-County Building. Congratulations. I knew you had the election in the bag all the way. Yeah, right. Anyway, I’ve noticed you have formed a number of transition teams to bring you up to speed on the various forms and functions of citycounty government. Folks way smarter than I have provided reams of information that will provide you a road map…
