By Anthony Schoettle
IBJ Reporter

A pact between Indiana University and a locally based track club for Olympic hopefuls is expected to bring new life to IUPUI's track and field and soccer facility and to attract more world-class sporting events to Indianapolis.

Greg Harger, president of the Indiana Invaders, confirmed his club has moved its offices to the track and field stadium at IUPUI and is helping manage daily activities and special events there.

The agreement is the latest in a series of events that might make the city a home for the world's best track and field athletes. The club has begun planning for international meets and is lining up corporate sponsorships to attract top athletes.

David Morton, left, and Greg Harger hope to bring big-time athletes, events to city. IBJ PHOTO/ROBIN JERSTAD © 1999.

Harger hopes to use an innovative format and scoring system to attract thousands of fans and a television audience for at least four world-class track and field events annually at the track and field stadium, which has hosted Olympic trials and the Pan Am Games. Harger is confident capacity crowds can be drawn to the 12,111-seat facility in three to five years.

In addition, the Invaders will help manage the stadium's soccer field.

Julie McKenney, director of the Indiana University Natatorium and Michael A. Carroll Track and Soccer Stadium at IUPUI, is confident the Invaders can help attract track and field, soccer, lacrosse and other events to the stadium on West New York Street.

"We're hoping to bring many, many more events into the stadium, and we feel like they can support that," McKenney said. "We're looking to create a multi-use facility."

A formal deal between IUPUI and the Invaders is still being worked out, McKenney said. Harger said Invaders officials are only looking for a small compensation package plus use of the facilities to train club members and host events. Harger and Chris Buhler, the Invaders head coach, have worked as volunteers, consultants and officials at events at the IUPUI facility since the early 1980s.

Recent renovations to the track and soccer stadium in 1997 and 1998 have primed the facility to host a variety of big-time events, university officials said.

The Invaders' expertise and grass-roots approach to the sport drew IUPUI's attention, McKenney said. She hopes the Invaders will use that approach to help host youth track and field, soccer and other camps and events at the IUPUI facilities.

Harger said a cornerstone of the Invaders plan is to build a fan base and community support for the organization through youth camps and leagues. He said plans to launch a youth track and field league are already in the works for 2000. Invaders coaches and athletes will be instrumental in conducting the camps and leagues, Harger said.

"We want to have a bigger picture in mind with regards to track and field and soccer," said David Morton, Invaders director of marketing.

Harger, a 40-year-old former track and cross country runner for Central Michigan University, said his motivation for starting the Invaders in March 1998 was simple.

Along with a group of founders with local ties, Harger wanted to give college graduates time to train and develop for the Olympics.

He chose Indianapolis for its central location and superior facilities, including the "magic carpet" at the IUPUI track.

Craig Masback, USA Track & Field executive director, said clubs such as the Invaders are critical to give Olympic athletes, who have an average age of 28, time to mature after college. He said the Invaders' presence and the IUPUI track, considered one of the three best tracks in the country, give Indianapolis the ingredients to become a track and field mecca.

"The Invaders are already having one of their chief impacts--giving outstanding athletes a chance to pursue their Olympic dream," Masback said.

Harger said the Invaders already have 40 members, and plan to add 60 more.

"It is a net positive for the city to bring such outstanding individuals to town where they can make contributions of varying sorts to the community," Masback said. "Once the invitational meets come on line, Indianapolis will benefit from media attention and the economic impact brought by a major sporting event."

Harger expects to have several Invaders make the 2000 Olympic track and field team, including DeDee Nathan, the 1999 world indoor pentathlon champion. But he expects the Invaders to make up 30 percent of the Olympic track and field team by 2004.

Harger said most of the Invaders work part time or full time to support themselves. But Invaders officials are launching a marketing campaign seeking $3,000 sponsorships for each club member. Invaders' officials help members with structured training, obtaining equipment through sponsors, travel assistance to meets, and job placement and housing.

Morton said the initial response from Indianapolis' corporate community has been positive.

"We'll be trying to tell our story and aggressively marketing our athletes because that's the best part of our story," he said.

Milton Thompson, president of Indianapolis-based Grand Slam Cos., a sports marketing firm representing the Invaders, said there is huge potential for event and club sponsorship.

Thompson said the Invaders will use their development program to attract marketable Olympic athletes, which will give a boost to club meets, which will become another avenue for sponsorships.

A date could be set for the Invaders' first major event and a sponsor named in the next couple of weeks, he said, adding, "We think the potential is enormous."

Also at the center of the Invaders' strategy to make track and field meets more spectator-friendly is a plan to number athletes in each event according to a seeding system, and not to run events concurrently so each can be spotlighted.

"We plan on bringing some radically different ways of presenting a track meet," Harger said.

Added Thompson: "This experiment is being watched very carefully by a lot of people around the country."

"Reprinted with permission, Indianapolis Business Journal, IBJ Corp., copyright 1999."