Published: January 03, 2008 12:09 pm      

Stories to look forward to in 2008

You probably won’t get to attend them all. You may not even get to see them all on television. But these are eight of the biggest events for Southern Indiana residents coming up in 2008.

1) Summer Olympics in the Middle Kingdom

The 29th Summer Olympics will take place in Beijing, China from Aug. 8 to Aug. 24. Differing opinions about the changing face of China could make it the most politically charged Games since both sides of the Cold War traded boycotts in the 1980s. NBC will broadcast.

2) Ryder Cup comes to Louisville

Louisville’s Valhalla Golf Club will host the Ryder Cup, a team golf

competition between the United States and Europe, from Tuesday, Sept. 16, to Sunday, Sept. 21. NBC and USA will televise the matches. Paul Azinger and Nick Faldo will captain the teams. Azinger’s American squad has not won the cup since 1999.

3) Scribner Place opens

Pegged as a revitalizing agent for New Albany’s moribund downtown district, the first phase of the Scribner Place development — a YMCA fitness and aquatic center — is expected to open in the weeks before October’s Harvest Homecoming. Ground was broken in November 2006.

4) Hoosiers head to the polls for big races

Tuesday, Nov. 4, is Election Day. Southern Indiana residents will choose a congressman, potentially in a fourth matchup between U.S. Rep. Baron Hill and former U.S. Rep. Mike Sodrel. They will choose a governor, potentially re-electing Gov. Mitch Daniels. And they will choose a successor to President George W. Bush.

5) Will Patriots forge best resume in NFL history?

The 42nd Super Bowl — to be held Sunday, Feb. 3, in Phoenix, Ariz., and televised on Fox — could be just another Super Bowl. Unless it includes the New England Patriots, who would have won all 18 games and be seeking the second perfect season of the Super Bowl era. The 1972 Miami Dolphins went 17-0 in a shorter season.

6) IUS dorms opening

IU Southeast has been a commuter campus since it moved to New Albany in 1973. But that will change, beginning in the fall 2008 semester, when the school’s first residence halls open. They have capacity for 403 students.

7) New stadium for Colts

After playing in Indianapolis’s RCA Dome since moving from Baltimore in 1984, the NFL’s Colts will begin holding home games in Lucas Oil Stadium this September. The NCAA Final Four men’s basketball championship will also be played there in 2010 and the women’s Final Four in 2011. The stadium’s roof will retract.

8) A familiar feeling, from Stallone to space

Six 2008 films will revisit or remake famous movie franchises.

• Friday, Jan. 25 is the debut of another “Rambo” action picture with Sylvester Stallone.

• “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” that Harrison Ford vehicle’s’ fourth film, opens Thursday, May 22.

• “Get Smart,” with Steve Carell as Maxwell Smart, comes out Friday, June 20.

• Batman prequel “The Dark Knight” returns Christian Bale to the lead role and features Heath Ledger as the Joker. It opens Friday, July 18.

• The sixth Hogwart’s film, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” opens Friday, Nov. 21.

• A new “Star Trek” movie, including Leonard Nimoy but not William Shatner, debuts Thursday, Dec. 25.