Roller Girls gain cult following
The Naptown Roller Girls are proving so popular, the locally-based team is looking for a bigger venue. In only its second season playing at the State Fairgrounds’ Toyota Blue Ribbon Pavilion, the team’s…
Sports Business
Articles
Legislators tackle range of business-related measures:
Property tax reform took center stage during the just-completed session of the Indiana General Assembly. But lawmakers also grappled with a host of other measures with business implications. A roundup appears below. ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT One of the session’s most divisive issues-whether to penalize companies that hire illegal immigrants-died during the waning hours. Under the legislation, introduced by Sen. Mike Delph, R-Carmel, companies could have had their business licenses suspended, or revoked after three instances. The Senate and House passed…
SPORTS: ‘The Luke’ and its potential are finally real to us
And in less than five months-if, as we used to say in Center Grove, the Good Lord’s willing and the cricks don’t rise-it no longer will be just that mammoth structure rising between West and Missouri streets. It will be ours, and in that personal pronoun, I mean, sincerely, that Lucas Oil Stadium will belong to all of us, not just residents of Indianapolis and the contiguous counties who have pitched in on the funding, but to all Hoosiers who…
Youth basketball = big business
It seems there are many people and businesses these days fighting to get a piece of youth basketball. Talks between the NCAA and NBA started heating up last month about forming a coalition to launch co-branded youth basketball leagues and…
Let the Madness begin
The Madness this March is going to be a little crazier than usual. Due to advances in high-speed wireless technology, more people than ever will spend time at work paying attention to the…
Upsets hurt Big Ten tourney revenue
As a result of quarterfinal losses by Indiana and Purdue, attendance for last week’s men’s Big Ten basketball tournament at Conseco Fieldhouse fell below projections. After Session 3 (the one featuring IU and…
Menards races back to IRL
The company that powered Tony Stewart to the 1997 Indy Racing League championship is coming back to open-wheel racing. John Menard confirmed that his Menards chain of hardware superstores will be sponsoring Tony…
NCAA to IU: Can you hear me now?
The NCAA warned Indiana University in 2006 about hiring coach Kelvin Sampson. And IU didn’t listen. When IU was implicated in five major NCAA rules violations earlier this year, some NCAA officials, sources…
NCAA, NBA forging youth hoops pact
Professional and collegiate basketball are on the brink of a landmark agreement that hoops insiders said will change the landscape
of the sport in this country. Proponents say it would be good for basketball, but others say it’s an attempt to further commercialize
the sport.
SPORTS: NCAA tourney sure to have lots of Hoosier flavor
Of this, that and the other while sifting through the e-mails that made it clear many of you still believe the Indiana Pacers are the embodiment of evil and incompetence. Oh, well; I tried. It was just a few years ago, wasn’t it, when Indiana college basketball was in a swoon? Now you see the Hoosier influence here, there and everywhere. When the NCAA Tournament pairings are announced, four Indiana teams-Butler, Purdue, Notre Dame and Indiana-are assured of being in…
ICVA calls in headhunter to help fill top post: Experts say job should draw wide interest
A nationally renowned headhunter is tracking down candidates to fill the Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Association’s top job in hopes of having a new president in place by June 1. Industry observers expect plenty of applicants given an upcoming hospitality building spree. “This is potentially the chance of a lifetime for someone to come in and make a huge difference,” said Amanda Cecil, an assistant professor in IUPUI’s Convention and Event Management Department. She called the Indianapolis market a “gold…
EYE ON THE PIE: Governor gets his priorities right
Mitch Daniels has done many controversial things as governor. He leased the Indiana Toll Road. He got rid of the state employees’ union. He convinced the Legislature to switch to daylight-saving time. He proposed a property tax package that has many popular features. He also has advanced various ideas, some good, and some less good that went nowhere. Now our governor has come forth with the most positive and important initiative of his administration: awards for academic excellence. As Daniels…
Hoosier Heartland Highway pumps up hope on prairie: Expressway construction starting two years early
LAFAYETTE-For years, they’ve driven on little more than paved-over wagon trails pioneers carved into the hills nestling the Wabash River. Motorists on State Road 25 between Logansport and Lafayette have grown desperate for a replacement: the final, 33-mile western leg of the “Hoosier Heartland Highway.” Today, the Hoosier Heartland expressway ends in Logansport-the western terminus of a newly improved, four-lane U.S. 24 that runs east, to Fort Wayne. But last month Gov. Mitch Daniels surprised highway proponents with word that…
Calling all face painters
Indianapolis Colts fans have a unique opportunity to have their picture displayed on one of 200 permanent banners at Lucas Oil Stadium, which is set to open in September. Colts team photographers will…
Big Ten tourney a tough ticket
Big Ten men’s basketball tournament tickets are selling fast, according to local organizers. Approaching noon today, there were only a few seats available for tonight’s session at Conseco Fieldhouse, which includes games involving…
Simon denies Pacers for sale
Rumors are running hot about the future ownership of the Indiana Pacers. The New York Post’s Peter Vecsey mentioned in passing in his column on Sunday that the Simons have posted a for-sale sign on the team. Who could blame…
For $399, you can drive like A.J.
Business is good for the Indy Racing Experience, which was founded in a Gasoline Alley shop in 1987. The company, which started allowing fans to ride around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in two-seat…
Indy finalist for USA Basketball HQ
Indianapolis today is one step closer to stealing USA Basketball’s headquarters from Colorado Springs, where the national governing body for men’s and women’s basketball in the U.S. has been located since 1979. IBJ…
IU football fortunes on the rise
Indiana University this month began a television and radio advertising onslaught for its football team that seems to come at an odd time. After all, the spotlight is shining on March Madness, when…
Oprah’s beau advises struggling Pacers on image management
Best-selling author Stedman Graham says professional athletes should think of themselves as “a corporation unto themselves.”
Graham–perhaps best known as television star Oprah Winfrey’s boyfriend–brought that message to the Indiana Pacers during
a three-hour private seminar in late January designed to get the players to rethink the importance of their individual images.