The city’s USL team doesn’t have a stadium deal either.
What ever happened to Indianapolis’s bid to land a Major League Soccer franchise? Apparently nothing. It has been two months since Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber said San Diego is the end of expansion for the league for a “period of time.” That despite the best efforts of Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett to engineer a deal that would have seen a Major League Soccer franchise in the city and literally kick the United Soccer League’s Indianapolis franchise owners out of a piece of property where the Indy 11 owners wanted to build a new facility.
On June 3rd, the City-County Council approved a new special taxing district to help fund an MLS stadium project and by doing so withdrew funding for the Indy 11’s franchise ownership to build a soccer stadium in town. The Indy 11 ownership could still go ahead with its plan to build a facility for the team in a project called Eleven Park. The Indy 11 franchise owners thought they reached an agreement to build a soccer stadium-village with Indianapolis elected officials. The Indy 11 owners thought they had an agreement which would create a special tax district surrounding the stadium to help pay off some of the costs of the estimated billion-dollar project. But Indianapolis officials did an about face and expressed concern about the financial viability of the project and then there was the discovery of hundreds of human remains on the site. In late June, The Indianapolis Metropolitan Development Commission gave final approval for a new, potential Major League Soccer stadium. But it does not appear Garber is too impressed. “We love the city. We love the support from city leaders and the state. We will continue to work with them to see how it plays out.” It is not playing out.
Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191
Evan can be reached at evan_weiner@hotmail.com
The Indianapolis mayor said no to Eleven Park.
