The rumor mill — fed by current athletic facility improvements at Anderson University and by speculation in both Anderson and Terre Haute — suggests the Indianapolis Colts will be returning, after a 12-year absence, to AU this summer for training camp.
Some community insiders in both cities have said — speaking off the record — that the Colts will train in Anderson.
However, officials in Anderson and in Terre Haute — where the Colts currently have training camp at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology — are not talking about the possibility.
And an AU spokesman said Monday that construction work on the Kardatzke Wellness Center and on the nearby football practice fields is merely part of a “long-term, master plan” to upgrade the school’s athletic facilities.
Monday evening a backhoe and a dirt pusher sat next to the northeast corner of the wellness center. Piles of dirt and exposed cinder blocks and rebar stood testament to ongoing construction.
To the north, beyond the AU tennis courts, hundreds of yards of sod have been stripped from the soccer and football practice fields. Next to the tennis courts, a 12-foot high mound of what appeared to be mulch stood with a shovel tractor nearby ready to move it.
Some have speculated that the work being done is designed to make the AU athletic complex more enticing to the Colts. But university Communications Director Chris Williams said Monday that the work is part of a plan to improve AU sports facilities for the university’s intercollegiate athletic teams.
“There was a dip in the fields that made it difficult for our soccer teams,” Williams said. “And, quite frankly, we’re just updating and improving the showers in Kardatzke.”
On Friday, the Tribune-Star in Terre Haute reported that the site of the Colts’ 2010 training camp remains undetermined. Head coach Jim Caldwell said the location has not been decided, and team president Bill Polian described plans as “muddled.”
Still, officials aren’t willing to say the AFC champions are ready to leave Rose-Hulman, home to training camp since 1999, nor that the team is headed back to Anderson.
“Last week Coach Caldwell said that nothing had been set in stone for training camp,” Craig Kelley, vice president of public relations for the Colts, said Monday. “Once something has been set in stone, we’ll offer comment.”
“I don’t know anything about (the Colts leaving),” said Matthew Sinclair, director for athletic and recreation facilities at Rose-Hulman. “We don’t have a deal with the Colts (for this summer), but we’re in negotiations.”
During his State of the City address in February 2009, Anderson Mayor Kris Ockomon said the city was “99.9 percent sure” the Colts training camp would return to Anderson, citing information from city Councilman Art Pepelea. Officials from the city, Anderson University and the Colts met soon thereafter to discuss the logistics of the relocation, but no transition materialized.
Pepelea said he has not been privy to any further contact between the parties involved.
“I can’t speak for the city, but as for me, I haven’t heard anything,” he said.
Anderson University has made several improvements to its athletic facilities in recent years, including the construction of the wellness center and the installation of artificial turf and lights at its football field.
“The fact is that we talk to the Colts every year,” Williams said. “We have a really good relationship with their folks; we have some good friendships. I’m sure we’ll find out once they make a decision, along with everyone else.”
Williams said changes were afoot within the Colts organization back in 1998, when the team held its final training camp at AU for the last time. Since then, he said, the new Kardatzke Center has improved student recruiting.
The summer of 2009 also saw the reconstruction of Fifth Street, a major artery on the Anderson University campus, but not one that provides direct access to Kardatzke or the football field.
Colts training camp traditionally runs for nine weeks, beginning in mid-June and wrapping up around the third week of August. The team began organized team practices in Indianapolis last week.
according to http://www.heraldbulletin.com
