INDIANAPOLIS – IBJ Media has named Indiana Sports Corp President Patrick Talty and Chief of Staff and Strategy Sarah Myer to the Indiana 250, its annual list recognizing the state’s most influential business and community leaders across a wide range of sectors and organizations.
The list, available at Indiana250.com, was compiled by executives, editors, and newsroom staff from IBJ Media’s three news brands — Indianapolis Business Journal, Inside INdiana Business and The Indiana Lawyer — following a months-long process of reviewing nominations, researching Indiana organizations and consulting community leaders across the state.
Talty serves as the seventh president of Indiana Sports Corp, the nation’s first sports commission, founded in 1979. Before becoming president, he served as the nonprofit organization’s chief operating officer from October of 2019 until the start of his presidency. Myer joined Indiana Sports Corp in 2019 and previously served as chief marketing officer before assuming her current role in 2025.
Together, Talty and Myer have helped guide Indiana Sports Corp through a period of major event growth, statewide strategy development, and national recognition for Indianapolis as a sports host.
Earlier this year, Sports Business Journal ranked Indianapolis No. 3 on its list of the nation’s Best Sports Business Cities, and Sports Events & Tourism Association recently named Indiana Sports Corp its Sports Commission of the Year.
The honors come during a landmark period for Indiana Sports Corp and Indianapolis’ sports scene. In 2026, Indianapolis hosted the NCAA® Men’s Final Four® for the ninth time and set viewership records on TNT Sports, as well as single-day and overall attendance records at Men’s Final Four Fan Fest in the Indiana Convention Center. It marked the first time a city hosted the Division I, II, III, and NIT men’s basketball championships over the same weekend. Indianapolis also hosted the Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament and is preparing to host the Big Ten’s Volleyball Tournament and Football Championship, the Emirates NBA Cup 2026 Championship, and the 2026 Indy Classic.
Under their leadership, Indiana Sports Corp has helped Indianapolis host an unprecedented slate of events, including NBA All-Star 2024, 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Swimming, the largest WWE Royal Rumble in history, and WNBA All-Star 2025. The city continues to raise the bar for hosting through innovation, including staging the first opening ceremony for NBA All-Star Weekend and building a 66-foot replica Eiffel Tower to anchor its downtown activation for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Swimming.
Indiana Sports Corp has also announced future events coming to the city, including the return of the U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Swimming in 2028 and the NCAA Men’s Final Four in 2029. The 2028 NCAA® Women’s Final Four® will include additional national championship games with the Division I semifinal and championship games to be played in Lucas Oil Stadium, marking the first time in more than two decades that those games will be held in an active NFL stadium. The future calendar also includes a first-of-its-kind partnership with WWE to host its two-largest stadium events, upcoming Big Ten Football Championship Games, and Big Ten Women’s and Men’s Basketball Tournaments.
In 2024, Indiana Sports Corp launched its 25-year statewide sports strategy, called 2050 Vision, to make Indiana the epicenter of sports through five pillars of focus: Sports Events, Sports Tech, Sports Academia, Sports Business Leadership, and Women’s Sports. This year, the W.E. Are Next program, developed in partnership with Bloombase, celebrated the graduation of its first cohort. The program is focused on building a long-term leadership pipeline for women shaping the future of sports, business, innovation, and culture.
IBJ Media launched the Indiana 250 program in 2022 and updates the list annually.
Other individuals with connections to Indiana Sports Corp who were also named to the Indiana 250 include: JoAnn Brouillette, Brian Burdick, Brandi Davis-Handy, Scott Dorsey, Jeff Harrison, Leonard Hoops, Carolene Mays, Melissa Proffitt, Mario Rodriguez, and Karin Sarratt.