From 1979 to 1982, IUPUI inherited three world-class athletic facilities that have since hosted Olympic trials and world-record performances by top-flight amateur and professional athletes. But that inheritance has turned into a financial albatross around the university’s neck. It’s grappling with how to pay for their upkeep and the improvements necessary to keep the facilities–and the city–in the hunt for high-profile sporting events.
Now, I feel like the unlucky one. For the past two years, I’ve been privileged to be part of monthly media tours of Lucas Oil Stadium. I was there as the concrete bowl began to take shape, and as those steel trusses that would frame the retractable roof were put into place. I was there as the brick exterior began to climb, and when the concourses were little more than freshly poured concrete and empty spaces. I was there when…
Longtime sports/talk station WNDE-AM 1260 has beaten back newcomer WFNI-AM 1070 in a critical listener demographic despite
WFNI’s extensive promotion of hosts Eddie White and Indianapolis Star sports columnist Bob Kravitz.
Dear lenders: Perhaps you have seen the recent headlines that declared suburban Indianapolis among the best places in the country to live and raise a family. Perhaps you’ve also taken note that there are a lot of things happening in our communities. Big projects abound in the Indi anapolis area, including Lucas Oil Stadium and the Midfield Terminal at Indianapolis International Airport. People are so excited about the new stadium they lined up for hours trying to get a tour…
Some heavy hitters in the local not-forprofit consulting world have formed Achieve LLC, a company that will use the Internet to make high-end advice available to small and midsize charities. Its goal is to give organizations experiencing growing pains access to expert advice they usually can’t afford. “The question was, how do you fill that void for smaller not-for-profits?” said coowner and Vice President Dave Sternberg, former associate director of the Fundraising School at Indiana University’s Center on Philanthropy and…
Dear lenders: Perhaps you have seen the recent headlines that declared suburban Indianapolis among the best places in the country to live and raise a family. Perhaps you’ve also taken note that there are a lot of things happening in our communities. Big projects abound in the Indi anapolis area, including Lucas Oil Stadium and the Midfield Terminal at Indianapolis International Airport. People are so excited about the new stadium they lined up for hours trying to get a tour…
Some heavy hitters in the local not-forprofit consulting world have formed Achieve LLC, a company that will use the Internet to make high-end advice available to small and midsize charities. Its goal is to give organizations experiencing growing pains access to expert advice they usually can’t afford. “The question was, how do you fill that void for smaller not-for-profits?” said coowner and Vice President Dave Sternberg, former associate director of the Fundraising School at Indiana University’s Center on Philanthropy and…
Now, I feel like the unlucky one. For the past two years, I’ve been privileged to be part of monthly media tours of Lucas Oil Stadium. I was there as the concrete bowl began to take shape, and as those steel trusses that would frame the retractable roof were put into place. I was there as the brick exterior began to climb, and when the concourses were little more than freshly poured concrete and empty spaces. I was there when…
The Indianapolis Colts sell sponsorships like Peyton Manning throws touchdown passes. A lot of the credit goes to the team’s former sales and marketing boss Ray Compton, who sold everything imaginable…
Officials of the Indianapolis Colts and Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance today announced that they have agreed to a multi-year deal to put the insurer’s name on the team’s 56th Street training complex. Terms were not released, but the Colts signed a similar deal in 2000 with Union Federal Bank that team sources said at the […]
Two things are clear from reader feedback I’ve been getting this week about two stories I wrote for this week’s print edition of the Indianapolis Business Journal. First, fans of WNDE-AM 1260 are much more vocal than those of WFNI-AM…
Lucas Oil Products Inc., and its owner Forrest Lucas, are taking a beating from IBJ readers after his request that Indianapolis Colts fans and local media not call the team’s new stadium “The Luke.” Lucas…
EnerDel, the Indianapolis company that’s developing lithium ion batteries for cars, plans to create 850 jobs across the state by 2012, Gov. Mitch Daniels announced today. Some of the jobs will be at the company’s headquarters on the northeast side of Indianapolis. Other positions will be located in Noblesville and the rest will be at […]
EnerDel Inc.’s $100 million expansion, one of the biggest in the state this year, earmarks 277 of the 850 new positions for the Indianapolis area. The lithium-ion battery company announced this morning that it will add 217 jobs to the 100 positions at its headquarters at 8740 Hague Road on the far northeast side of […]
Charter Homes owner Jerry Jaquess fancies himself a white knight for King Park, a neighborhood once known mainly for its
rampant crime, boarded-up homes and vacant lots. But as he’s constructed a slew of homes and carriage houses there, the local
builder has stirred up several lawsuits, dozens of liens and persistent questions about whether his business is legit.
On a typical Saturday at Smock Golf Course on the city’s south side, visitors are treated to a symphony of thwacks, pings
and the occasional plunk. In good or bad economic times, it seems, people in Indiana and across the country have always played
golf. But these days, the sound of that symphony has waned. Nationwide, the number of rounds of golf played through the first
half of this year is down 2 percent from last year. In Central Indiana, the situation is worse.
That’s when new tax benefits kick in for an unusual kind of long-term-care insurance, called asset-based longterm care. The Indianapolisbased life insurer is betting those tax breaks send a wave of money flooding toward asset-based long-term-care policies, which one of its subsidiaries has sold for nearly 20 years. With people living longer and the 70 million baby boomers aging, the need to pay for long-term care, such as in-home elder care and assisted-living facilities, is sure to rise. “We see…
State environmental regulators are catching an earful for what some businesses complain is a rush to aggressive new rules
for remediating land contamination. Developers worry the Indiana Department of Environmental Management’s proposals, which
could require comprehensive site cleanup, will discourage brownfield redevelopment, especially the reuse of tainted-but-valuable
land in urban areas.
Like hundreds of millions of other people around the world, I’ve been watching the Olympics on TV. Like most Americans among those viewers (especially NBC executives), I was pulling for swimmer Michael Phelps to win eight gold medals and surpass the record seven set by Mark Spitz in 1972. As everyone not buried under a rock knows by now, Phelps succeeded in his quest, but only by the narrowest of margins and only with considerable help from his teammates. Thus,…
Back from vacation with thoughts of this, that and the other: Even as my bride and I traveled through the magnificent scenery of Colorado, Wyoming and Montana, our nightly ritual was the same as that of millions of other Americans: making sure we were in front of the television to watch the Olympics. And yes, especially, Michael Phelps. Some have rushed to proclaim him the greatest Olympian of all time and, certainly, the argument can be made if you look…
