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  • How Irsay’s daughters carved out big roles with Colts and could handle succession

    How Irsay’s daughters carved out big roles with Colts and could handle succession
    2025/06/02
    With an estimated value of $4.8 billion, the Indianapolis Colts franchise is arguably the best-known family-owned business in Indiana. While we reflect on the passing of team owner Jim Irsay, who had significant influence on building the physical plant and identity of modern Indianapolis, we have the luxury of knowing that three more Irsays are in a position to continue that work and stewardship of the team. Daughters Carlie Irsay-Gordon, Kalen Jackson and Casey Foyt already are co-owners of the team and have been entrenched for years as high-level executives. In particular, Irsay-Gordon has been so deeply involved in every aspect of football operations that it’s widely assumed she will claim the role of controlling owner. These women have spent much of their adult lives preparing for this eventuality, but experts maintain that succession in professional sports is always a challenge, regardless of the circumstances. Jim Irsay seemed very comfortable in the public eye and as a sometimes larger-than-life figure. His daughters have kept much lower profiles—so much so that many casual fans probably aren’t aware of their existence. In this week’s podcast, we’re going to try to change that. IBJ has interviewed both Carlie and Kalen in past years, and we’ll share excerpts from those interviews that are relevant to this moment. We also have comments from one of the team’s leaders on the field about his experiences with Irsay-Gordon and Jackson. Our in-studio guest is IBJ’s Mickey Shuey, who has a story in the latest issue of IBJ about the ways the three sisters have carved out roles for themselves with the Colts. He also explores how the NFL typically handles succession issues and what financial concerns the daughters likely will have moving forward.
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    43 分
  • Explaining the Indy 500 tumult, Team Penske scandal and firings, and what’s important

    Explaining the Indy 500 tumult, Team Penske scandal and firings, and what’s important
    2025/05/23
    The week between qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 and the actual race is usually pretty quiet from a news perspective. But there’s nothing usual about the last week in this year’s Month of May. Major penalties assessed to two cars owned by Team Penske—including the car driven by two-time defending champion Josef Newgarden—inflamed long-running concerns about Roger Penske’s ownership of both the IndyCar Series and arguably its most successful team. In an extraordinary press conference on Monday, IndyCar President Doug Boles announced that he and another Penske executive decided that harsher penalties were warranted in an effort to protect the integrity of the Indy 500. Their decision, he said, was made without the input of their boss, Roger Penske. Two days later, Team Penske announced something that would have been unthinkable before the 2024 season--that it was parting ways with three of the team’s top executives. That included President Tim Cindric, long considered to be Penske’s successor in the racing part of his automobile empire. The departures have been widely reported as firings. Boles dropped another bombshell late on Wednesday. He revealed that IndyCar has been exploring the creation of an independent governing body beyond Penske’s control to officiate the series without the appearance of bias. If you live in the central Indiana media market, these rapid-fire announcements might have been bewildering. You’ve heard references to “cheating” and “scandal.” You’ve heard that the smoking gun for the qualifying penalties was something called an “attenuator” that had been illegally modified in some way. You’ve heard that all of these developments are a “big deal” for Penske, and therefore the series. If you don’t follow IndyCar religiously, this week’s podcast gives you the relevant background and serves as a primer on which elements are important. Our guest is John Oreovicz, a journalist and author who has covered IndyCar for three decades.
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    47 分
  • Whatever happened to downtown’s elevated People Mover?

    Whatever happened to downtown’s elevated People Mover?
    2025/05/19
    You may have become so used to them that you no longer notice, but snaking through downtown Indianapolis’ northwest quadrant are the remains of a revolutionary public transit system that transported riders on elevated tracks 30-feet high. It was called the People Mover, developed for $44 million by Clarian Health Partners, the hospital system now known as Indiana University Health. From its launch in 2003 to 2019, it recorded roughly 6 million rider trips on a 1.4-mile track running between Methodist Hospital, University Hospital and Riley Hospital for Children. The People Mover had the cooperation of city officials, who allowed the track to use public right of way along Senate Avenue, West 11th Street and University Boulevard. And the People Mover was filled with promise, as some predicted it could be expanded to a larger public transit system that would include Indianapolis International Airport. But tram came to screeching halt in 2019, when IU Health said it would begin offering shuttle buses instead and expected to save about $40 million over 10 years. That also was about the time IU Health began planning a massive facility consolidation and modernization project downtown. IBJ reporter Daniel Lee has a personal connection to the People Mover and recently began looking into what remains of the twin-track system and whether IU Health has any plans to resurrect it. In this week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast, Lee also gauges support for a proposal that would transform the infrastructure into an elevated trail celebrating the heritage of Black communities on downtown’s northwest side.
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    22 分
  • Pete the Planner on student loan collections, stagflation and holding our collective breath

    Pete the Planner on student loan collections, stagflation and holding our collective breath
    2025/05/12
    These are uncertain times for the U.S. economy. We’re in a grace period for many of the Trump administration’s promised tariffs on dozens of trading partners. U.S. consumer confidence plunged again in April, hitting its lowest level since October 2011. First-quarter gross domestic product for the U.S. hit negative territory for the first time since the first quarter of 2022. On May 7, the Federal Reserve again opted to hold interest rates at the same level, wanting to wait and see how President Trump’s tariff policies shake out. In the financial press, pundits are quibbling about how close we could be to a recession. At the same time, there are several positive indicators for the economy, including strong jobs reports. Trump recently told Americans via social media to “BE PATIENT!!!” for the economic boom that his policies will create. In essence, we’re holding our collective breath to see how all this plays out. In the meantime, the Trump administration on May 5 resumed collecting on defaulted student loans, ending a five-year pause that began during the COVID-19 pandemic. For more than 5 million student loan holders currently in default, this is significant news, and millions more could join them in the near future. The redirection of their income to loan repayment likely will have an effect on the economy as well. IBJ columnist Peter Dunn, aka Pete the Planner, returns to the podcast this week to sift through the data and help us get a footing in this economic limbo. He also takes a closer look at the decision to resume collecting on defaulted student loans and the possible consequences.
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    34 分
  • Inside the Legislature's wild session on tax breaks, hospitals, IEDC and more

    Inside the Legislature's wild session on tax breaks, hospitals, IEDC and more
    2025/05/05
    In the early hours of Friday, April 25, Indiana legislators passed a $46.2 billion budget for state expenses over the next two years—specifically, from July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2027. Legislators knew going in that state revenue to fund the budget would be tight, and they got a nasty revenue forecast with about a week to go in the session. The last week of a budget-writing session is usually pretty hectic, and this one had plenty of surprises as lawmakers tried to find ways to generate more tax revenue while simultaneously reducing funding for agencies and departments. Fledgling Gov. Mike Braun jumped headfirst into his first legislative session and made progress on his campaign promise of providing property tax relief. The Republican-led General Assembly also passed legislation aimed at lowering health care costs for Hoosiers with an approach that focused on hospitals. In both of those cases, of course, the bills passed were the product of much debate, lobbying, negotiation and compromise. Lawmakers also entered the session knowing that reforms would be proposed for the Indiana Economic Development Corp., the state agency charged with helping attract businesses to Indiana and helping businesses currently in the state grow. Its fate wasn’t entirely decided until very late in the session. To take stock of the latest budget-writing session and how it will affect Hoosiers, we’ve invited a panel of reporters who covered some or all of the General Assembly to share their insights on fiscal issues and a few surprises. From the Indianapolis Business Journal, we have Cate Charron and Daniel Lee. And they’re joined by Casey Smith of Indiana Capital Chronicle.
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    1 時間 9 分
  • Indiana NIL guru says settlement threatens 'what we love about college sports'

    Indiana NIL guru says settlement threatens 'what we love about college sports'
    2025/04/22
    Any day now, a federal judge is expected to give final approval to a $2.8 billion settlement of three antitrust lawsuits that could dramatically alter the landscape of college sports. And given the tumult since the creation of the transfer portal and name, image and likeness opportunities for athletes, that’s saying something. In addition to awarding damages to athletes over the last decade who lost out on NIL opportunities, the settlement agreement lays out a framework for compensating athletes going forward that smashes the status quo. Under the deal, schools will be able to pay athletes directly for the use of their names, images and likenesses as a form of revenue-sharing. However, athletes still will be able to receive money from other NIL sources, and that includes what we call NIL collectives—independent groups, usually founded by alumni and boosters, that pool money for NIL deals benefitting their schools’ athletes. There are rules in the settlement for what qualifies as a legitimate deal via collectives, but this element of the settlement has its skeptics. In a special edition of the IBJ Podcast, host Mason King consults Pete Yonkman, president of Bloomington-based Cook Group and the founder of two collectives established to help Indiana University athletes benefit from NIL opportunities. If the settlement agreement is approved as anticipated, Yonkman foresees a blizzard of lawsuits and a college sports landscape with only a relative handful of schools that can attract top talent and compete for championships. What's at stake, he says, is "what we love about college sports." He also suggests a framework for a solution.
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    43 分
  • UConn champion Kelley Gay applies on-court lessons as corporate VP in Indy

    UConn champion Kelley Gay applies on-court lessons as corporate VP in Indy
    2025/04/21
    Comparing company employees to a sports team is a well-worn management trope, but Kelley Gay knows as well as anyone the value of translating the experience of a championship-level athlete to the corporate world. She graduated from one of the most lauded team cultures in the history of college athletics: the University of Connecticut’s women’s basketball program. In 1995, Gay played forward on UConn’s first women’s national championship team. Earlier this month, the UConn women’s program won its 12th national championship, all under coach Geno Auriemma. Today, Kelley Gay is senior vice president and chief marketing officer of OneAmerica Financial, the largest private company based in Indianapolis. But the lessons she learned from her father, a former NFL lineman, and on the court with UConn are still top of mind. In this week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast, Gay discusses the importance of learning your role in a large organization while understanding how everyone contributes, when to celebrate your successes and when to push your team to accomplishments they might not believe they can achieve. She also explains her role on the local host committee for July’s WNBA All-Star Weekend in Indianapolis—essentially an all-star team of Indy-area executives comprised largely of women.
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    45 分
  • Maureen Weber on the importance of early learning, leadership and failure

    Maureen Weber on the importance of early learning, leadership and failure
    2025/04/14
    This week’s IBJ Podcast features a conversation from our Forty Under 40 awards breakfast last week with Maureen Weber, the winner of this year’s Alumni Award. Maureen was originally a Forty Under 40 honoree in 2010. Back then, she had just finished reorganizing the Indiana Department of Education and had taken a job as director of community outreach and engagement at Clarian Health, now Indiana University Health. Sixteen years later, Maureen is president and CEO of Early Learning Indiana. She said she took the job because she saw the opportunity to transform the lives of young children, especially vulnerable ones. IBJ Editor Lesley Weidenbener talked with Maureen on stage about the work Early Learning Indiana is doing today and about leadership and learning from failure. You can read more about Maureen and see our latest Forty Under 40 class here.
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    21 分