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SPORTS: You can’t fathom ‘the Luke’ until you’ve been inside

Growing up, my brothers and I had the usual constructiontype toys: Lincoln Logs, an Erector Set, Tinker Toys and-if memory serves me-this kit from Kenner you could use to assemble the plastic skyscraper of your imagination. Among the things I tried to build, however, were gymnasiums and stadiums, because I always was fascinated with places that brought together large numbers of people. But since I had the attention span of a gnat and the conceptual engineering skills of an eventual…

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BRIAN WILLIAMS Commentary: Indy is ready (and waiting) for rapid transit

A new survey demonstrates yet again that community leaders recognize it is time to fix traffic congestion, improve air quality, reduce aggregate fuel use and enhance area accessibility. The study was taken last summer of 377 members of the Lacy Leadership Association, a group of local opinion leaders, by Walker Information, a local market research firm. More than 90 percent of survey respondents indicated that rapid transit is an important component of the solution to these problems. In addition, respondents…

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Speedway’s windfall leads to speculation: Questions arise about possible new hotel, turn-two suite upgrades and acquisition of adjacent land

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s announcement this month that it would sell its stake in Chicagoland Speedway for $69 million has racing industry experts wondering if the famed Brickyard is planning an expansion. “There are a number of things [IMS President] Tony George could use that money for,” said Dennis McAlpine, a New York-based financial analyst covering motorsports and entertainment. “That’s not to say he’s hurting for cash, but I believe he has projects on his plate.” IMS and Daytona Beach,…

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SPORTS: Glimmers of hope give Painter a long honeymoon

In terms of a transition game, Purdue University’s Matt Painter hasn’t yet been able to get out on the figurative fast break. First, there was the year he spent as associate head coach during Gene Keady’s long goodbye, when the Boilers struggled to a woeful 7-21 mark. Then, last season, when Painter assumed full control of the Boilermakers, injuries and suspensions factored heavily into a 9-19 record and a last-place, 3-13 finish in the Big Ten. And this year? With…

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Massive hotel project could advance without city help: Redevelopment would be on a smaller scale

Land near Victory Field could get hundreds of additional hotel rooms even if the developers that control the site don’t receive city incentives they’re seeking for a huge convention hotel project. Merrillville-based White Lodging Services Corp. and Indianapolis-based REI Real Estate Services are asking the city to invest $45 million to $55 million toward a $250 million campus of hotels on land that’s now home to a 235-room Courtyard by Marriott and a TGI Friday’s. If they don’t win the…

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SPORTS: IU’s Sampson prepares for his toughest audience

CHICAGO-Yes, Kelvin Sampson has the job. It’s been his since March. Nonetheless, the audition begins next week in Conseco Fieldhouse, when his IU Hoosiers basketball team opens the preseason NIT against Lafayette. Sampson will need to be into multi-tasking. Coach his team. Rise to stratospheric expectations. Restore reputations. Quiet the critics who can’t get over the fact that he arrived with baggage that included more than his clothes. And, just win, baby. That will take care of virtually all of…

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Lucas Oil launches high-end motorcycle biz in Indy

Little known in this market less than a year ago, Lucas Oil Products is roaring into town with its first brick-and-mortar operation. Founder Forrest Lucas has set up a sister company, Lucas Cycles, to make fancy, fuel-injected motorcycles.

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SPORTS: Football triple-header has its highs and lows

There’s nothing better than Friday night at a high school football game. Unless it’s Saturday afternoon at a college football game (even if it is Indiana University). Or Sunday afternoon at an NFL game. Then again, how about all the above on an idyllic late-summer weekend? So, my wife, Sherry, and I set out for a tripleheader gridiron adventure. And before I proceed, let me say it’s terrific to have a bride who will happily endure three football games in…

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Preparation is key to surviving disasters of all kinds: Financial experts offer tips to keep your records safe in emergencies

Last year’s hurricane disasters in the Gulf Coast region brought to light how easily and quickly personal financial records can be lost or destroyed in a catastrophe. While hurricanes aren’t likely to hit Indiana, tornadoes, fires and floods are always a possibility, as are crimes such as theft, vandalism and identity theft. Financial planners emphasize that it’s important to keep records safe from various disasters that can hit without warning. In fact, they say, it’s good to have a plan…

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SPORTS Bill Benner: Little-noticed Horizon League prospers and grows

SPORTS Little-noticed Horizon League prospers and grows From his fifth-floor office in Pan Am Plaza, Horizon League Commissioner Jon LeCrone has a view of the Indianapolis skyline. His only wish is that the city would look back. Not at him. At his nine-member league, which will grow to 10 next July when upstate Valparaiso joins Butler in the league’s Indiana contingent. Alas, it’s a prime example of good news making no news. Or of the media, local and otherwise, determining…

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RCA Championships secures ATP support: Local tournament working on TV, sponsorship deals

In the wake of rumors that a mini offseason for players could interrupt the RCA Championships’ calendar slot, the ATP-the association representing men’s professionals tennis players-has come out in strong support of the local tournament. “There’s no uncertainty about the future of this tournament from the ATP’s perspective,” said Mark V. Young, ATP’s CEO for the Americas. Young confirmed that ATP officials, who set the men’s professional calendar, have discussed shortening the schedule at the behest of players, who claim…

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DIFFERENT TAKES: IS IT IMPORTANT FOR COMPANIES TO STAY LOCAL?

Mergers not only good for investors Keeping local roots is high priority DIFFERENT TAKES IS IT IMPORTANT FOR COMPANIES TO STAY LOCAL? When entrepreneurs or investors start companies, they do so with a goal in mind. That goal might be to create jobs, create value for investors or shareholders, develop local talent, build long-term capabilities for the company and the state’s economy, produce a profit, or all of these. Chances of success rise as we embrace the idea of an…

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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Does the economy care who wins in November?

If you ever visit Indiana’s past through the eyes of our state’s excellent historians, you uncover many amazing facts. To me, one of the most remarkable is this: In the 19th century, before the age of the automobile, mass communication and high school basketball, the voter turnout among Hoosiers in national elections approached, and sometimes surpassed, 90 percent. When you think about the sacrifice it took to get to a polling place in those days, that’s an incredible achievement. Of…

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TOM HARTON Commentary: Crime takes indirect swipe at the arts

In Indianapolis, when the crime rate goes up or kids’ test scores go down, it’s not uncommon for people to point the finger at publicly funded sports facilities. “Our priorities are screwed up,” observers opine. “We spend too much money on these playgrounds for the rich, and not enough on cops, courts and public education.” The sports establishment here has been batting away this criticism for years. It goes with the territory in a city where sports is an important…

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BEHIND THE NEWS GREG ANDREWS gandrews@ibj.com: With Finish Line stumbling, analysts weigh sale, LBO

Finish Line Inc.’s fortunes have dimmed so dramatically in recent months that analysts are raising a range of ideas that once seemed farfetched to boost the slumping stock. Among them: taking the company private through a leveraged buyout, or selling it to a larger retailer. The athletic-shoe industry is abuzz that an LBO for Finish Line’s struggling rival, New York-based Foot Locker Inc., is already afoot. That company last month hired a financial adviser, just weeks after Women’s Wear Daily…

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Fox Sports Midwest rebrands, unveils new plan: Local broadcasters will feel heat if strategy works

Fox Sports Midwest-which is in the process of rebranding to Fox Sports Indiana in this market-is serving notice it intends to be the television network of choice when it comes to local sports. Shortly after wrestling part of the Indiana Pacers broadcast rights from WTTV-TV Channel 4, officials for St. Louis-based Fox Sports Midwest unveiled a plan that entails significant upgrades to its local sports programming, including adding professional, collegiate and high school sports of all sorts as well as…

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BRIAN WILLIAMS Commentary: Downtown needs a grand, artful facility

On Sept. 1, 45 competitors from nearly 20 countries arrived for the seventh quadrennial International Violin Competition of Indianapolis. Through the middle of September at venues around the city, these talented men and women will compete for one of the richest artistic prizes in the world. In a few short months, the American Pianists Association will undertake its biennial competition for the Cole Porter Jazz Fellowship. Again, a cadre of some of the instrument’s most accomplished American performers will come…

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SPORTS: Are security searches all we retained from 9/11?

I pulled up the column I wrote five years ago this week. It was published five days after 9/11. This is how it began: “When you have a tragedy of such immense proportions as the one visited on America last week, it renders the world of sport to the status of the trivial, the trite, the absolutely, totally inconsequential.” But I also expressed the belief that it would be sport that would aid us in our recovery. “Yet as meaningless…

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Colts plan to let sponsors decorate portions of stadium

The Indianapolis Colts are giving sponsors a chance to help design the interior of Lucas Oil Stadium. The newly announced sponsorship packages, which parcel out naming and design rights for 12 parts of the stadium, are expected to generate up to $10 million a year for the franchise.

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NFL Combine is likely here to stay: Organizing firm moves headquarters to Indianapolis

Local officials have lured another sports-related company here and taken a huge step in assuring the NFL Scouting Combine stays in the city long term. National Football Scouting and sister company National Invitational Camp, which operates the Combine for NFL team owners, moved its headquarters in August from Tulsa, Okla., to Indianapolis. NFS and NIC moved into the Pan Am Plaza office building, across the street from the RCA Dome, where it has held the Combine since 1987. NFS also…

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