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Indiana Sports Corp. expands youth initiative: John Byers hired from Tabernacle Presbyterian to lead effort to address health issues of city’s children

After more than 20 years heading up one of the biggest youth sports programs in Indianapolis, John Byers is leaving Tabernacle Presbyterian Church to help Indiana Sports Corp. play a bigger role in improving the health of Hoosier children. Byers will become ISC’s vice president for youth programming, a new executivelevel position at the not-for-profit, on April 10. “The Indiana Sports Corp. made a decision to look at youth wellness in our city and in our state,” said Susan Williams,…

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National City Center to get $11 million facelift: Projects include new Starbucks and restaurant

National City Center and anchor tenant Hyatt Regency Indianapolis plan to pump more than $11 million into the aging, 16-story building to boost its competitiveness with other downtown towers. The plans might grow to include connecting the building to the Artsgarden at the corner of Washington and Illinois streets. The Hyatt Regency, which occupies a wing of the National City Center, plans an $8.5 million renovation that will include the addition of 10,000 square feet of meeting space, a Starbucks…

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SPORTS: Byproducts abundant at basketball’s big event

Our big basketball week is upon us. With it, I have some hopes. For starters, I hope we don’t take the event and all that comes with it for granted. The NCAA’s Men’s Final Four is one of the few moveable mega-feasts in sports. That local visionaries dreamed big dreams and put in place the venues, forged the relationships, and formed the partnerships to make Indianapolis the only city to be part of the Final Four’s permanent rotation is an…

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Lucas owner says skeptics off base: ‘Small company’ big enough to handle major deal, he says

The Indianapolis Colts had to be convinced that California-based Lucas Oil Products Inc. was the right company to buy its stadium naming-rights package. Football franchise executives were quickly converted, but the deal still has its detractors. A month after the 20-year, $121.5 million agreement was announced, sports sponsorship experts remain skeptical it will pan out. “This is a heavy investment for such a small company,” said William Chipps, senior editor of Chicago-based IEG Sponsorship Report. “I can tell you it…

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Mega-hotel on city agenda: Pan Am Plaza possible site for 800-room development

The city is looking for developers interested in adding 800 hotel rooms downtown, a project that could be accomplished by building a massive, new hotel or augmenting several existing facilities. Insiders say a new hotel is most likely. They picture it on Pan Am Plaza. If that happens, the hotel would become the city’s largest-eclipsing the Indianapolis Marriott by almost 200 rooms. Ideally, the rooms would be available by 2010, when the wraps come off the expanded Indiana Convention Center….

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Hospitality madness: City wants to grow reputation as Final Four’s ideal site

Bill Evans’ phone rang at 11 p.m. It was a basketball team. The players wanted milkshakes. He popped up like he was bouncing on one of those mini-trampolines mascots use to dunk basketballs at halftime. He tapped his partner on the shoulder. They rolled two coolers to the downtown Steak n Shake. He ordered milkshakes. Large ones. Two for each player. They put the shakes in the coolers and rolled them through the downtown night to the team hotel. The…

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SPORTS: A basketball breakfast you won’t soon forget

One of the reasons the NCAA chose Indianapolis to host this year’s Final Four is that it coincides with the association’s centennial celebration. What better way to bring attention to the NCAA’s 100th year than by having its showcase event in its headquarters city. But that won’t be the only significant basketball anniversary to be feted during Final Four weekend. Three others have significance to Hoosiers. Call it a coincidence of greatness. For starters, it will be the 50th anniversary…

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NOTIONS: The power of persistence in work, art and sport

Bruce Hetrick is off this week. In his absence, this column, which appeared on April 19, 2004, is being reprinted. During spring break, my wife, Pam, and I took our sons, Austin and Zach, to Chicago. Because Zach is a budding photojournalist and Austin likes to write, we arranged through a friend to visit The Chicago Tribune. One of the newspaper’s photographers, Nuccio DiNuzzo, arrived at work an hour before his Sunday shift to meet with us. He gave us…

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SPORTS: Pacers’ off-the-court performance never waned

Like any team, especially the professional variety, the Indiana Pacers are to be judged by their success … or lack thereof. Their bottom line is the one that’s posted on the scoreboard 82 times a season, then again in the playoffs. It comes as no bulletin that the last two years have been more painful than pleasurable, much of which can be traced to the excesses and eccentricities of the nowdeparted Ron Artest. Collateral damage has been the organization’s reputation…

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Lilly says hands off Gemzar: Drugmaker files suit to keep cancer drug off generic market

Fresh off one blockbuster patent defense, Eli Lilly and Co. mounted another last month when it filed suit to protect its billiondollar cancer drug Gemzar. The Indianapolis drugmaker sued Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and a subsidiary, Sicor Pharmaceuticals Inc., to prevent them from selling generic versions of Gemzar, which treats several forms of cancer and comprises 9 percent of Lilly’s worldwide sales. Lilly learned in January that California-based Sicor had filed so-called “abbreviated new drug applications” with the U.S. Food…

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WANTED: Coach with Midas touch: IU searching for hoops leader who’ll bring financial stability to athletics-and university

With a $1 billion capital campaign looming at Indiana University, athletic director Rick Greenspan is facing his biggest decision. Many observers think the choice of basketball coach will determine not only the health of the men’s basketball program, but of the entire IU athletic department-and to some extent the entire university-for decades to come. IU officials have not yet publicly announced their capital campaign, which would allocate about $85 million for the university’s athletic facilities, and likely won’t until next…

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SPORTS: It’s about more than hoops if Chicago gets tourneys

Our month of Much Madness has begun. Forty-one games in 33 days downtown. The Big Ten women’s and men’s tournaments (20 games). The IHSAA girls’ and boys’state finals (eight games). The National Association of Basketball Coaches All-Star Game on Final Four weekend. The NCAA Men’s Final Four (three games). And, interspersed throughout, nine Indiana Pacers home games. So what’s your pleasure? High school, college, pro? No matter the level, it is coming to Indianapolis in abundance. Quality and quantity, packaged…

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Bulls of the Fairways:

David Simon and Alan Cohen are outstanding golfers, among the best of all Indianapolis businessmen. The CEOs of Simon Property Group Inc. and Finish Line Inc. share something else in common: Their companies are top performers, with their stock prices more than dou-Professor sees link between golf scores, biz success bling in a little more than three years. Coincidence? Not according to Dan Dalton, golf aficionado and former dean of Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. “Business is like match…

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Ticked off over tickets: NCAA plans to battle hospitality brokers during Final Four

The launch of The Tournament Club at this year’s men’s basketball Final Four in Indianapolis is the first shot across the bow of brokers, travel agents, hotel room resellers and others who’ve stepped in to meet the demand for hospitality packages the NCAA previously ignored. In December, the NCAA hired rEvolution, a Chicago-based sports marketing and media agency, to launch the association’s own hospitality package, including lower-level tickets, access to an exclusive hospitality area at the game venue, premium hotel…

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Blog Boom: Newest Web craze becoming a key tool for business marketing, communications

Myles Brand needed a way for his organization to reach out to the public. It had to be direct and immediate and initiate an honest two-way discussion. Brand, NCAA president, chose an offbeat idea-albeit one with a growing following-to solve this age-old business problem. He gave the directive late last year for the NCAA to launch its first blog, an online presence that two years ago few corporate types understood, much less considered a viable means of communication. Now, the…

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SPORTS: IU doesn’t have to hire from the ‘family,’ but it will

There will be no shortage of worthy successors to Mike Davis as the head basketball coach at I.U. Rick Majerus? I love Rick Majerus. He’s the absolute basketballjunkie with nothing like a wife, family or even a home to distract him from the job. He’s a tremendous motivator and strategist. But he’s also a guy who’s had heart problems and I worry if he could survive the stress-not from coaching, but from being within an hour’s drive of Iaria’s. Thad…

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Labor tiff puts loan for stadium in limbo: NFL Players Association refusing to back $34 million as fight with owners drags on

A $34 million loan from the NFL that the Indianapolis Colts are counting on to fund part of their share of stadium construction could get sacked, at least temporarily, in an NFL labor dispute. Teams with pending stadium loans-including the Colts, Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants and Jets-hoped to get final approval of their loans at the March owners’ meeting. That is now in serious doubt, league sources said. NFL owners last June approved a $34 million loan for…

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SPORTS: Time for Mike Davis to look himself in the mirror

“Why’s everybody always pickin’ on me?” – from the song “Charlie Brown,” by The Coasters I count myself among many, many Indiana University alumni, supporters and basketball fans in general who wanted to see Mike Davis succeed as the Hoosiers’ coach. I admired his demeanor, humility and honesty. I respected the incredibly difficult situation he inherited, first as the interim coach, then as the man designated to sustain IU’s tradition in the wake of Bob Knight’s firing. And certainly, no…

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Entrepreneurship the Indian way: A day with a Bangalore software-maker reveals business parallels

BANGALORE, India-HealthAsyst CEO Umesh Bajaj remembers when the only computers allowed in India were self-assembled. As recently as 20 years ago, the Indian government’s protectionist measures prohibited foreign companies from directly selling PCs. Instead, Indians imported microchips and built the computers themselves. In his first job as an electronics engineer for an Indian conglomerate, Bajaj crisscrossed the country marketing versions of mainframes and desktops made in India. Today Bajaj, a 55-year-old born in New Delhi, owns his own Bangalore-based health…

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Industry veteran at helm as ATA exits bankruptcy: After months of tumult, Karnik ready for ‘boring’ year

Subodh Karnik slowly backed up to his chair at ATA Airlines Inc. and slumped into it. His 46-year-old back was killing him. One of his elementary-age sons back home in Atlanta used him like a trampoline over the weekend. The injury got worse when Karnick ran through the airport, like O.J. Simpson in an old Hertz commercial, to catch a flight back to Indianapolis. “I was born a masochist,” said Karnik, a 6-foot-4-inch native of Mumbai, India, who sports a…

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