Quickie dateline question: State College or U-Park?

Racing dateline that drives me insane -- Indianapolis for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The fucking track sits in the city of Speedway, Indiana, which is its own distinct locality. Unlike most of Indy's suburbs and contrary to public perception, it was NOT annexed during Dick Lugar's UNIGOV in the 70s. It remains its own (decaying) city.

I used to make my staff at various papers change it, and they'd look at me like I was Rain Man when I explained why, but it is flat-out inaccurate. I asked the AP guy about it once and he just shrugged it off.

There are some who argue that Indianapolis should be the dateline because that's a dateline most would recognize over Speedway.

I'd buy that, except for the fact that the Milwaukee Mile has always been datelined West Allis, Wis. -- which is accurate, though the Milwaukee Mile's proximity to Milwaukee proper is very similar to IMS' proximity to Indy proper (actually, Indy's city limits begin to the east of the railroad tracks near Indy's property).

It's Speedway, dammit!

 

There are several fully-incorporated cities around here that the post office recognizes only as "Birmingham." Doesn't mean they aren't legit.

 

Happened to us, too, on the NFL. Either the writer or the columnist used the correct dateline. The other used the generic dateline.

 

OK, here's the difference with Penn State. University Park is not an incorporated municipality. FWIW, AP has gone back and forth on this and they've now settled on State College.

Technically, Beaver Stadium and the BJC are off-campus, and as such you could argue it's due a State College deadline.

I have seen it both ways in in-state papers.

 

Actually, isn't the stadium technically in College Township? ;D

FWIW, we use STATE COLLEGE, though I've seen UP in older editions.

 

What about Notre Dame? Technically the campus is in Notre Dame, Indiana not South Bend.

 

The all-time killer on this is Atlanta Braves spring training. Depending on the writer, you could get Lake Buena Vista, Kissimmee or even Orlando.

 

the original site for the Arizona Cards' new stadium was on property that straddled both Mesa and Glendale. the field would have actually been in both, so if you were writing a sidebar about the deciding touchdown, would you dateline it based on whether it was scored in Glendale or Mesa?

 

Which city is the locker room in? That's where you did the interviews.

 

Which city is the mailing address?

There's one high school in particular like that in Massachusetts, literally smack dab on the border of two towns.

 

my first paper went with mailing addresses for datelines, which is idiotic, since in that area the larger post offices had routes 15 miles away from where that town really was. just doesn't make sense using a dateline of a town that's nowhere near where the venue is, just because that town's PO delivers mail there

 

There are some golf courses in two or three different towns. What to do then? Ask what town the clubhouse is in, and if nobody knows, look for vending machines. They should have city license stickers on them.
Doesn't AP use Indianapolis for the Indy racetrack because the town of Speedway wasn't incorporated until well after the track opened?