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NCAA Women’s Final Four brings new opportunity: Demographics will decide who benefits from event

The $20 million economic impact forecasted for this year’s NCAA women’s basketball Final Four is about $10 million below the men’s event. That doesn’t mean it isn’t an important opportunity for Indianapolis, which will host the event for the first time in April. “This is an important audience for Indianapolis to be in front of,” said Susan Williams, Indiana Sports Corp. board member and co-chairwoman of the local organizing committee for the women’s Final Four. “It’s a different audience than…

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TOM HARTON Commentary: City’s improvement doesn’t sink in

Dr. Pierre Tran, a former neuroscience researcher at Eli Lilly and Co., was lured from Indianapolis to a suburb of San Francisco recently by a small biotech firm and its ability to develop new drugs more quickly than pharmaceutical giants like Lilly. The region’s diversity and “food culture” also played a role, Tran told the San Francisco Business Times in a story about where the Bay Area finds all the brainpower it needs to fuel its tech culture. Tran went…

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SPORTS: Is there the will to heal college basketball’s ills?

I had a terrific lunch-time conversation with someone involved in college athletics, a person whose perspectives I admire because I know he hasn’t come to them easily. The jumping-off point for our discussion was the recent formation of the College Basketball Partnership, or CBP. It is a collection of coaches, administrators, broadcasters and NCAA staff, convened at the urging of NCAA President Myles Brand. Its task is to “address the challenges and opportunities” facing college basketball, especially at the Division…

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NPR affiliate launches local news initiative: WFYI’s goal is to generate daily, original content

The city’s only National Public Radio affiliate is launching a local news department for the first time in its almost 20 years of operation, and has signed a deal that could gain it thousands of listeners south of the city’s center. WFYI-FM 90.1 hired veteran TV newscaster Scott Hoke in late November as local host of NPR’s “Morning Edition” and will hire a reporter within six weeks. The radio station plans to soon after launch a weekly sports show featuring…

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STATEHOUSE DISPATCH: Stadium parley scrambles 2005 legislative agenda

At least until mid-December, we thought we had a tentative handle on the General Assembly’s focus for the 2005 session. We knew the new governor and the new Republican House majority would team up on economic development initiatives, improving governmental efficiency and restructuring state agencies. The biggest task would be crafting a realistic state budget in the face of adversity and uncertainty. The regular “stuff of government” would also be squeezed in and some thorny telecommunications issues would be raised,…

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NOTIONS: At the dawn of 2005, we’re all in the same boat

My family and I spent Christmas week on a boat, in the ocean, with hundreds of people from Indonesia. And because they were comforting us, not vice versa, it seemed all wrong. The day after Christmas, Pam, Austin, Zach and I awoke at 3 a.m. We showered, dressed and lugged our suitcases downstairs. At 4 a.m., the limousine pulled up in our snowy driveway. The chauffeur loaded our luggage into the Cadillac’s trunk, helped us aboard and drove through icy…

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Herron site might be used for new school: Charter campus proposed for soon-to-be vacated spot

Joanna Taft isn’t content helping to develop emerging artists. She also wants to help develop art patrons-and the historic neighborhood around what will soon be the former home of IUPUI’s Herron School of Art at Pennsylvania and 16th streets. So Taft, executive director at the nearby Harrison Center for the Arts, is working on plans for a charter high school to occupy a portion of the space IUPUI will vacate when it moves the art school to the campus proper…

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She makes live TV readable for the hearing impaired: Former court reporter transferred her skills to broadcast captioning, which she does from her home studio

If you’ve ever hit the mute button on your TV, you’ve probably seen the closed-captioning text at the bottom of the screen that’s provided primarily for the hearing impaired. For live TV shows, someone’s fingers have to fly on a stenotype machine to produce those captions. The National Court Reporters Association estimates there are only about 500 people in the country who can do that, and Susie Wollenweber is one of them. Working from her Indianapolis basement, Wollenweber provides broadcast…

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SPORTS: Behind the scenes with the city’s sports machine

For more than 30 years, I arrived at sporting events focusing primarily on the outcome, searching for a good angle, collecting a few quotes, and hoping to beat deadline. The only times I ever really noticed the staging of an event was to complain about it. I had a bad seat at the press table … or the final box score was too slow in arriving … or there weren’t enough telephones … or, the sorriest gripe of all, the…

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Replicating race cars of the past: Westfield firm plans to sell Ford GT40 reproductions

An upstart Westfield company’s reproduction of the 1966 Ford GT40 Mk1 race car turns heads wherever it goes. Whether it’s on the highway or in a showroom, people can’t help but gaze at the sleek, retro roadster built to emulate the original that dominated the 24 Hours of Le Mans races nearly 40 years ago. It dethroned Italian automaker Ferrari at the 1966 event, finishing first, second and third, and went on to win the race four consecutive times. Executives…

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SPORTS: Visions of trophies, titles and a new stadium in ’05

Back, by little demand, my annual list of wants and realities for the New Year (please do not clip and save). Want: Same as last year, and the year before, and the year before. That Peyton Manning leads the Colts to a Super Bowl victory and validates his MVP status (for those who still believe he’s not as good as he is). The euphoria over the Horseshoes’ Super Bowl triumph then forces the General Assembly’s hand, and the stadium-Convention Center-expansion…

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Indians stock sale pushes price to record high: 16-percent increase comes on heels of strong financial year for AAA franchise

The Indianapolis Indians’ stock value is going up like a long ball off the cleanup hitter’s bat. On the heels of a year that saw strengthening profits for the AAA minor-league affiliate, six shares of Indians stock sold in December for $15,200 each as reported in pink sheet filings. That represents a 16-percent increase from the last sale 18 months ago. “This is significant because these shares don’t trade that much, and six shares comprises close to 1 percent of…

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Weight center waits: Bariatric surgery hospital had been scheduled to open in mid-2004

Michigan-based Forest Health Services LLC launched plans in 2003 to build a two-story inpatient bariatric hospital at Intech Park off 71st Street and then applied a year ago for a license to operate it. The hospital would treat people with severe weight problems. Workers completed most of the construction on the 37,000-squarefoot building last spring, but little has happened since. A letter filed last January with the Indiana State Department of Health said Forest Health anticipated a June or July…

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Federal grants are flying to Indiana airports: Record money a boon for capital improvements

Indiana airports landed record federal grants of $61.9 million in fiscal 2004 for everything from building taxiways to extending runways to transmitting weather data to pilots. The $17 million, or 38 percent, increase from 2003 could bode well for economic development in cities with growing airports, such as Columbus. “About 65 percent of our traffic here is business during the week. The more accessible we become, it’s bound to have an impact,” said Rod Blasdel, manager of Columbus Municipal Airport….

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Growing convention business creates tough decisions: Mayor outlines possible solution for expanding center and adding stadium, but funding battle looms ahead

Consider Indianapolis a victim of its own success. The city’s efforts to make a name for itself as a convention destination have worked-almost too well. The Indiana Convention Center is at capacity with 40 major events a year, and two of its biggest customers are moving to roomier digs. What began as a “what if” discussion about adding space to accommodate more business has turned into a “must do” conversation about keeping what’s already here. “That’s what really drove it…

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