To take advantage the national attention on Indiana as it hosts the entire NCAA men’s basketball tournament, the state has enlisted some famous Hoosiers and some up-and-coming residents for a campaign to show why Indiana is a great place to live, work, study and play.
Other than a few facilities that will be COVID testing sites, team lounges or overflow areas, most event spaces that usually glean revenue from tournament gatherings could be left out in the cold.
Former JW Marriott employee Lisette Woloszyk watched things go from bad to worse in March, as cancellations for the city’s hotels racked up alongside COVID-19 cases.
A limited number of spectators will be allowed to attend the Big Ten Conference’s men’s and women’s basketball tournaments in Indianapolis this month, the conference announced Thursday morning.
The city will host an unprecedented number of games with the entire tournament being played in Indiana. But the pandemic will limit capacity at both games and restaurants.
Even after the NCAA said Feb. 19 that some spectators will be allowed at the games, local tourism officials and economists are still tempering their financial expectations.
The Indiana Department of Health told IBJ that the state’s COVID-19 testing data, which has been updated daily since the pandemic began almost a year ago, is limited to information on Indiana residents.
The deliberations about when to implement the 17-game season are tied in part to the completion of new broadcasting contracts with the television networks, according to people familiar with the planning of owners and the league.
Most of the games will be played at a handful of venues in Indianapolis, while remaining games will be played in West Lafayette and Bloomington.
The agency, which operates the Indiana Convention Center, Lucas Oil Stadium, Bankers Life Fieldhouse and Victory Field, was hit hard by the pandemic, with annual revenue off more than 50% from the previous year.
Charles Venable, who came to Newfields in 2012, stepped down Wednesday amid controversy over a job posting.
Indiana’s economy should start to recover this year from the damage of COVID-19, but the economy likely won’t fully rebound until late 2022 or early 2023, a Ball State University economist says.
The letter said staff members spent four hours Monday “listening to members of senior leadership attempt to explain themselves, their actions and their plans,” but were left feeling “more distrustful and confused” about their future after the meeting.
The pandemic that landed March Madness in Indianapolis is also the complication that will strip some of the tournament’s ambience, but local officials are organizing safe activities.
MDG Salon | Studio owner Travis Moore said Thursday that the company’s downtown Indianapolis salon is closing, but the business will consolidate operations at MDG’s Carmel location starting March 1.
Dr. Virginia Caine, executive director of the health department, said she expects the NCAA to formalize a request regarding fans “within the next one to two weeks,” and indicated recent data related to positive tests and hospitalizations is promising.
Routes to both cities begins at the end of May. The airline also plans to offer service from Indianapolis to Rapid City, South Dakota, in August for the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.
Deputy Chief Joshua Barker says the challenge requires lots of planning and coordination—with the NCAA, the Indiana Sports Corp., local businesses, and even other police departments throughout the region.
The Indiana Sports Corp. on Friday said it has received the grant to support ongoing beautification and programming efforts in downtown Indianapolis leading up to the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament in March.
Local officials are scheduling neighborhood cleanups, public art initiatives and a slew of other efforts to help the city put its best foot forward when March Madness takes over downtown next month.
