Not too long ago, I posted this FanPost asking you readers your thoughts on a possible regional sports site for Indiana. At the time, SB Nation (the parent company for Stampede Blue) was launching regional site for places like New York, Philadelphia, Los Angles, and Dallas-Fort Worth.
In the FanPost, I asked each of you a simple question:
However, if they [SB Nation] did want to make such a [regional] site [for Indiana], what would you want to see?
Several of you offered your opinions, thoughts, and ideas. Today, I am very happy and very excited to announce that your opinions, thoughts, and ideas got the attention of SB Nation. Today, SB Nation launches SB Nation Indiana, your regional sports site for sports you care about in the great Hoosier state.
SB Nation Indiana
Now, some of you are smart and caught on that SB Nation Indiana was in the works. I applaud your detective skills. I've been working on developing the site for two months now. Invaluable during that process were Travis Miller, writer of SB Nation's Purdue Boilermakers blog Hammer and Rails, and Tom Lewis of Indy Corn Rows. Both fed me ideas on how SB Nation should cover Indiana sports, advocating not just strong coverage for the pro and college teams, but making a case to write articles and promote content for high school sports and racing as well.
While Tom could not pull double duty at both Corn Rows and SBN IN, his advice and continued support was vital to the site's launch.
So, you might be asking right now "What is SB Nation Indiana? Don't you guys have blogs that cover things like IZOD IndyCar? IU basketball? The Pacers? Notre Dame?"
The short answer is yes, we do have blogs covering all those sports entities. The point of SB Nation Indiana is to support, promote, and enhance those blogs. Sports are inherently local, but not everyone who casually enjoys sports can read every single blog out there. Obviously, if you are a Colts fan, you are going to read a Colts blog. Same if you are a Purdue fan, a Pacers fan, and a Tony Stewart fan.
But, what if you are all those things? Are you going to visit each and every blog every day? If you do, God bless you. For everyone else, SB Nation Indiana makes it easier for you to get the Indiana sports news and commentary that interest you.
Joining me at SB Nation Indiana are the before-mentioned Travis Miller; Stampede Blue stats man and Notre Dame fanboy Matt Grecco; racing writer Bill Potter of the excellent Drive Hard, Turn Left blog; and Ryan Phillips, founder and writer of the sports rumor blog Rumors and Rants.
If you head over there now, we already have our college football previews up for I.U., Purdue, Notre Dame, and Louisville. Yes, we cover Louisville sports on the site. It's part of Kentuckiana, and we're proud to include it in our site's coverage.
We also have previews for NASCAR's 'Chase for the Cup' and the final races in the IZOD IndyCar series.
Oh, and we plan to have plenty of additional Colts news and coverage there that will enhance and take Stampede Blue in an exciting new direction. I very much hope you will make SB Nation Indiana a regular stop in your daily surfing. Thank you for all the insight and opinions you provided. Without them, SB Nation Indiana likely would not have happened.