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Blair Kiel launches DVD production firm: Company’s first release goes inside the Irish huddle

Former University of Notre Dame and Indianapolis Colts quarterback Blair Kiel is leading a local group that thinks it can put up big numbers with a series of sports DVDs. Kiel-along with former Indianapolis Colts marketing chief Ray Compton, Grand Slam Cos.’ Milton Thompson and Pathway Productions’ Michael Husain-formed Legendary Sports LLC this year, and the company is preparing to launch a string of video productions. Legendary Sports’ debut DVD, “Inside the Irish Huddle,” the tale of the University of…

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GuyFest: Motorcycles, brewers, home theaters … New event targets CEOs to steelworkers

It’s not a new medical procedure, but a three-day event Compton calls “a magical place-home to both the steelworker and the CEO.” Testostorama Men’s Expo, planned for Nov. 11-13 at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, is being hyped to men of all ages and backgrounds “as payback for all those years she dragged you to the Flower and Patio show.” “We cooked up this event and put a little edge to it,” Compton said. Testostorama organizers expect more than 200 exhibitors-from…

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NOTIONS: An empty nest fills with memories

Last Sunday morning, I awoke before dawn. Dreading what was to come, I lingered in bed, watching the gray light of a cloudy morning illuminate the houses across the way. Around 7:30, I worked up the energy to get out of bed. I took a shower, popped my morning meds, and headed downstairs. As is their teen-age wont, both my boys were still asleep. So I retrieved The Star and The New York Times from the driveway and glanced through…

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Adidas sale could bring changes to former Reebok facility: German sports giant has a history of using overseas manufacturing sites

Adidas’ plan to buy Massachusettsbased Reebok International Inc. for $3.8 billion has put the future of Reebok’s eastside manufacturing plant in doubt again. Though Reebok officials insist the immediate future is secure for the 600,000-square-foot operation off Post Road, industry experts say changes are on the way. Reebok took ownership of the facility in 2001 when it bought Indianapolis-based licensed apparel maker Logo Athletic out of bankruptcy court. Since then, Reebok has invested heavily and expanded local staff from 400…

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SPORTS: Tiller rescued Purdue but isn’t immune to critics

This year the NCAA mandated that Division I-A football media guides be reduced to a uniform 212 pages. Keep in mind that these fonts of information intended for inkstained wretches had morphed into voluminous pitch-tools for recruits and brag books for boosters. The cutback didn’t prevent Purdue’s sports information office from devoting a copious 11 pages of copy in its 2005 guide to Joltin’ Joe Tiller. Perhaps I (or you, dear reader) should read nothing more into that other than…

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NASCAR puts marketer in fast lane: Brown builds reputation for closing big sponsorship deals

Zak Brown retired as a race car driver years ago. But he’s never moved faster than he does today as the founder and president of Indianapolis-based Just Marketing. On the heels of this year’s Brickyard 400, Brown expects to announce two more major NASCAR sponsorship deals brokered by his company. Those deals-which he can’t yet discuss-along with recent deals to bring Johnnie Walker and Hilton Hotels to Formula One, will bring his sponsorship portfolio to near $150 million annually. Though…

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SPORTS: Before the first kickoff, all is well on IU gridiron

C H I C AG O – Almost a year ago in this space, I wrote about IU’s then-new athletic director, Rick Greenspan, observing that his arrival coincided with the beginning of football season, which would allow him to be immediately confronted with the Athletic Department’s most pressing and obvious problem. Under Gerry DiNardo, an uninspired choice to begin with, Hoosier football was continuing its mired-in-the-muck ways, hopelessly spinning its wheels. Horrible as a game coach and even worse in…

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INVESTING: Adventurous investors could get thrill riding surf stocks

Surf’s up! Because I love surfing, those words have been music to my ears for more than 25 years. Now, Wall Street is showing some enthusiasm for the sport, too, as well as the culture that surrounds it. The California surf culture has been setting fashion trends across America for decades. The sport of surfing has witnessed consistently strong growth since the Beach Boys and Gidgett exploded into the mainstream in the 1960s. For evidence of the incredible reach of…

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Riverview Hospital opens health care, fitness center:

Riverview Hospital opened a Health Care Pavilion July 5 at 146th Street and Hazel Dell Parkway. The 15,000-square-foot facility is the first building to open in the new $5.2 million health and fitness complex. The pavilion will be home to Hazel Dell Family and Immediate Care, as well as several physicians specializing in such areas as women’s health, preventive medicine and sports medicine. The second building in the complex, the Riverview Health and Fitness Center, is slated to open in…

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SPORTS: Lance Armstrong miracle started here…or did it?

It is 10 a.m. on July 24 and, from several thousand miles and an ocean away, it is being reported that Lance Armstrong has, indeed, won his seventh consecutive-and last-Tour de France. I pick up the telephone and dial Dr. Lawrence Einhorn at his home here in Indianapolis. “What a way to go out,” says the doctor, the pleasure obvious in his voice. “And it still gives me goose bumps.” What a championship pairing: Lance Armstrong, cancer survivor. Lawrence Einhorn,…

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EYE ON THE PIE: Your call is important to someone

I’m on hold after calling Wishard Hospital’s Adult Medicine Clinic at 7 a.m., as instructed, to get an appointment with my doctor. My call is very important, the recorded message says, but no one is responding. First, I am told that if this call concerns a “life-threatening situation,” I should hang up and call 9-1-1. That’s really helpful. Maybe other, more sophisticated patients can identify a “life-threatening situation.” I am always reluctant to make such a determination. Then I go…

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Solheim fills LPGA marketing cup: Sold-out international event at Crooked Stick set to be anchor of new advertising campaign

With unprecedented growth in Solheim Cup ticket and sponsorship sales, the LPGA is preparing to use the September event at Crooked Stick Golf Club as a cornerstone for its new, racier marketing campaign. The LPGA, working with the Indiana Sports Corp., quickly sold out the event earlier this year and expects more than 150,000 people to come through the turnstiles for the three days of practice and three days of competition for the international women’s golf event. “We had so…

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University Place getting major makeover: New owner IUPUI investing $13M in renovation of 18-year-old hotel

A hotel built during an era in which Indianapolis first laid claim to its title of Amateur Sports Capital of the World has a new owner that is spending millions of dollars to bring the structure into the new century. University Place Conference Center & Hotel, on the campus of IUPUI, opened amid the fanfare of the Pan American Games hosted by Indianapolis in 1987. Nearly 4,500 athletes from 38 countries converged on downtown, including a throng of media that…

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SPORTS: A history lesson for 21st century stadium critics

It is Oct. 20, 1971. I am standing near Market and Alabama streets, where the groundbreaking has taken place for a venue to be called Market Square Arena. The price tag is a salty $23 million, and the project has attracted critics and naysayers who wonder about the city’s priorities, especially since our mayor, Richard Lugar, is using federal revenuesharing funds to help pay for the arena. Plus, Lugar has this wacky idea about using the arena as a catalyst…

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Radio Disney catching the ears of youth-and advertisers: Event marketing key to getting local kids to tune in

Two years after its launch, Radio Disney’s local WRZD-FM 98.3 affiliate is outperforming many affiliates in the 55-station network, even though traditional measures of its success are anything but magical. WRZD’s rating by New York-based Arbitron Inc., the industry’s standard media research firm, shows the station barely cracking the top 20 in this market. But WRZD has prospered through another number: listener calls per day. The station averages an eye-popping 4,070 calls a day, according to officials at Radio Disney’s…

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$34M from NFL lightens Colts’ load: Money will count toward team’s portion of stadium cost

A $34 million loan of sorts to the Indianapolis Colts from the National Football League brings the franchise and local officials another step closer to signing a new stadium lease and drastically reduces what the team will spend out of pocket for the stadium’s construction. The National Football League approved a $34 million loan June 14 that will be applied to the Colts’ $100 million share of the $625 million downtown facility, which is scheduled to open in time for…

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TOM HARTON Commentary: Keep your eye on the design

Design matters, and architects aren’t the only ones who should care. On the eve of two significant ground breakings, even those of us who know nothing about facades and fenestration should consider what’s about to take place here. Later this month, the first dirt will be turned on the site of the city’s new airport terminal, and we can assume that dignitaries will brandish shiny shovels next month just south of the existing RCA Dome. In both cases, there will…

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SPORTS: Artest’s future bright as long as Bird’s in his corner

In this space and in other media forums, I have expressed optimism that the Indiana Pacers’ Ron Artest will (a) make it through an entire NBA season without incident, (b) perform like the selfless allstar he has been and can be again, and (c) therefore justify the Pacer management’s faith in keeping him in a blue-and-gold uniform. What I fear, of course, is that he’ll do (d) none of the above. Artest’s talent is obvious. Unfortunately, so is his volatile,…

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BEHIND THE NEWS: Hat World helps propel parent’s stock out of slumber

When Indianapolis-based Hat World Corp. announced its $165 million sale to a Tennessee firm 17 months ago, it had posted increases in same-store sales for an impressive 27 months in a row. Now, make that 42 and counting. Such a streak is almost unheard of in the rough-and-tumble retail world, especially for a firm wrestling with the inevitable distractions that go along with the transition from independence to ownership by a publicly traded company. “We have maintained the same momentum…

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Firm plans to get personal with clients’ home pages: Former gubernatorial candidate runs Web business

Developing an Internet home page that gives users more options for content than what behemoths such as America Online and Yahoo! offer through their syndicated selections has become the ambition of George Witwer. The 46-year-old Bluffton native, who once aspired to be Indiana governor, launched the northwest-side Humanizing Technologies in January 2000. With much of the product’s research and development in the can, the venture is close to weaning itself from investors and, for the first time, could turn a…

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