Indy Eleven vs Philadelphia Union - 2025 U.S. Open Cup Round of 32

Summary

- Opponent: Philadelphia Union 
- Location: Subaru Park
- Attendance: 8,633
- Final Score: 1-1 D (5-4 Philadelphia after extra time)

- Starting XI: Charles-Cook, White, Ofeimu, Musa, Stanley, Foster, Murphy, Quinn (C), Rendon, Blake, Amoh

- Substitution: Williams, R. 73' (Amoh); Collier 73' (Collier); O'Brien, J. 90' (Rendon); Lindley 90' (Murphy)

- Unused: Sulte, Hogan, Kizza

Scoring Summary:
PHI - Bedoya 6' (assist Mbaizo)
IND - Amoh 48' (assist Foster)

Penalty Kicks:
1 IND - Williams, R. - Success (to right) 
1 PHI - Vassilev - Success (to right)
2 IND - Blake - Success (down the middle)
2 PHI - Baribo - Success (to the left)
3 IND - Quinn - FAIL (to the right)
3 PHI - Westfield - Success (to the left)
4 IND - Lindley - Success (to the right) 
4 PHI - Rafanello - Success (down the middle)
5 IND - Stanley - Success (to the right)
5 PHI - Lukic - Success (to the right)

- Bookings:

PHI - Vazquez 55' (Yellow)

IND - Murphy 69' (Yellow)
PHI - Makhanya 88' (Yellow)
IND - Ofeimu 90' (Yellow)
IND - Stanley 90'+2' (Yellow)

- Referee: Matthew Corrigan

- Adage goals: None.

Thoughts and Opinions

Here's the thing. Indy wasn't going to sneak up on any MLS teams this year. A run to the semifinal last year catches everybody's attention. Philadelphia wasn't going to overlook a semifinalist, no matter what league their opponent originated. Philadelphia did still seem to think that it wasn't going to take their top players to do it based on their starting lineup. Giving a 15-year in Sullivan first-team minutes gives some indication of that. In the first half, that proved to be the correct mentality. Indy played timid and passive. No, not passive. Reactionary. From the jump, they looked like a team that was content with seeing getting the game to halftime to try and win it late. Defensively they were chasing. Offensively, they were chasing. Very few times did they ever look like the team that had a game plan, other than "let's not lose it in the first half." Something they, in essence, looked like they did when the conceded a 5th minute goal. Indy Eleven eventually succumbed to the Union 5-4 in penalty kicks, but they overcame their early mistake to make a good showing for themselves.

Much of the first half of this game reminded me of the U.S. Open Cup game last year against Sporting Kansas City. Same as last year's game, Indy came out in a bunker, providing at least on the surface more respect for their opponent than maybe necessary. In Kansas City, Indy proceeded to concede a goal within the first 15 minutes, forcing them to play from behind, just like tonight's early goal forced this version of Indy to do. Against Kansas City, the team then conceded a second goal before halftime, making it vital that they play a different style of soccer in the second half. Indy still lost last year's game, but they gave a better showing of themselves. Indy managed to make it to halftime this year still just down by the single goal, but they were playing the same style of soccer. 

Indy Goal Locations (Across All Competitions)

In this game, Indy found a goal nearly immediately coming out of the halftime break. Not surprisingly, it was the most in-form striker for Indy in Amoh. The first half and second half tactical plan seemed to be the exact same from the 2024 semifinal to the 2025 Round of 32 game. The difference was that Indy didn't concede the second goal in the first half and found an equalizer early. 

Indy's confidence increased in proportion to Philadelphia's frustration level and the game became a game where both teams looked like they wanted to win instead of one team wanting to win and the other not wanting to lose. I think it was always the plan for Indy to play the way they did, but I'm just not sure it was necessary against Philadelphia's starting lineup.

Indy started looking gassed when the game finally found its way to extra time after neither team were able to get the winning goal in regular time. Indy's effort in the second half can't be argued, but it took a lot out of them to get to the extra time. As a result, Indy began to bunker again and absorb pressure and absorb attack after attack from the Union. That bunker continued into the second half to extra time, but it certainly looked like the team was following the coach's plan.

Penalty kicks can go either way. Indy fans don't expect it to go poorly for Quinn, but getting his shot stopped by Andrew Rick proved to be the difference between the two teams. Indy had their 2025 U.S. Open Cup journey ended in the Round of 32 by the Philadelphia Union, but the team once again showed the fight that Indy fans want to see from this team. Indy have now faced 5 full-fledged MLS teams in the U.S Open Cup in their history and have taken two of them to extra time (one to penalty kicks), defeated a third, and lost to a fourth in the semifinals of the tournament. So only one win, but I think Indy fans can take solace in knowing that the club makes a good showing of itself against the MLS sides (even if those sides are sending out some of their 2nd string players).

The minutes on the starters' legs is worrisome as the team travels directly from Philadelphia to Sacramento (I was told they won't be stopping in Indy between the games) to face one of the top teams in the Western Conference, but Coach McAuley has always said that his teams will go after trophies. To beat a team like Philadelphia Union at Subaru Park requires a complete effort from all your players, and Indy's starters put in a shift, particularly after the halftime break. When it comes to trophies on the line, Coach McAuley has taken the opinion that he will play the players that he thinks give the team the best chance to win and then he'll deal with the ramifications for the league games once the game is finished. 

The Game Beckons Game Ball

Charles-Cook. No doubt and no other option. There's a reason Indy took it to penalty kicks, but Charles-Cook kept Indy in this game as he made 10 saves on 33 shot attempts and 11 shots on target. Teams have 11 players and Charles-Cook showed that sometimes it takes all of them to win games. Yeah, he wasn't able to get to any of the penalty kicks, but he had good reads for all of them, but the shots were just better. If not for Charles-Cook, this game doesn't get to penalty kicks. RCC is the GBGB winner.

Eleven Park AKA Titanic Park

 Let me start with some prefaces.

1. I did not attend the City-County Council meeting on Tuesday May 28th, 2024. Nearly everything I gleaned from that meeting was obtained via X, and specifically, Kurt Darling of WIBC. I will reference his name throughout, but not all the links. Go to his X page and you'll find them all there. Thanks Kurt!
2. My first article about an Indy Eleven stadium happened in December 2014 where I discussed the site near the Heliport. Does that make me an expert? No. Does it mean that I have spent a long time thinking about an Indy Eleven stadium? Yes. The location is not something new, even though it might feel that way right now.
3. I don't know anything more than what most people know. The people that wouldn't talk to me before still won't talk to me. The people that I used to think would give me an honest opinion, I don't think will do that anymore. Certainly not on-record. Is that going to stop me from giving my thoughts now? Hell no.

Let's move onto the basics from tonight's meeting. The CCC approved the proposal to create a second Professional Sports Development Area (PSDA2) by a vote of 6 yea, 4 nay, 1 abstain. Per Mr. Darling:

Annee: No

Bain: Yes

Boots: Yes

Brown: Yes

Dilk: No

Lewis: No

Mowery: No

Neilsen: Yes

Perkins: Yes

Robinson: Abstain

Osili: Yes

Mr. Darling conveyed this little nugget that I will discuss more later: 

Councilor Evans asks Deputy Mayor Parker what's next if the MLS proposal is defeated.

"If PSDA2 is defeated, we will not be building a soccer stadium. Period," he said.

Many eggs versus two big eggs:

City attorney Scott Chinn explains that the new proposal has "more eggs in one basket" as opposed to only "two big eggs" with Eleven Park.  

He says the new proposal is a lot more diverse as a tax district and keeps city liability to fill in the "gap" at a minimum.

And finally:

Deputy Mayor Dan Parker says the city backed out of the Eleven Park proposal because it "presented too much risk to city taxpayers." He says the new MLS proposal has "much less risk."

He added the "gap" in fiscal liability the city would take on with Eleven Park was "too big."

Now let's move to my thoughts.

I absolutely agree with Deputy Mayor Parker that "we" (the City of Indianapolis) will not be building a soccer stadium. The passing of the proposal in all reality kills the Eleven Park stadium at the PSDA1 site. With the deadline for the financial portion of the PSDA law fast approaching, the City and the Mayor will now move forward at full speed trying to get the PSDA2 area finalized and Keystone/Ersal don't have enough time to come up with a PSDA3 site. What I suspect happens is that 1) the Mayor's Office somehow manages to get part of the way there but don't succeed in jumping through all the legal hoops, thereby killing the PSDA2 stadium, or 2) they do manage to make it through the hoops and MLS says, "nay, that's okay, thanks for playing our game though," thereby killing the PSDA2 stadium. Since the Mayor already killed PSDA1, Indy doesn't build a soccer stadium. Deputy Mayor Parker tells the truth. The MLS proposal has "much less risk" on "City taxpayers" because nothing gets built. No real risk when there isn't anything built.

As I discussed in my last article about the resolution, the Mayor's Office's plan definitely spreads around the PSDA2 throughout the 1-mile radius allowed by the law. That's the "many eggs" versus Keystone/Ersal's Eleven Park development "big eggs." Looking at all the locations that the Mayor's office included in the PSDA2, I question whether even the combined effort of all those locations would be enough to "fill in the gap" if the stadium doesn't make the money expected. However, I've read through earlier financial proposals for the stadiums, and nearly all of them are more optimistic about revenue than I would think prudent and that hasn't changed from the time the PSDA1 was discussed. It isn't like the Mayor didn't see those projections months/years ago. Moving the "other revenue" sources to dozens of sites from just the one Eleven Park site doesn't change the financials that much based on what I saw. 

If there were any grown-ups in the room, here's how I can see this thing moving forward that actually benefits everybody. 

Oh wait. One other thing that was mentioned in the meeting and that continues to be a sticking point for me is that the Mayor's Office has yet to publicly state who is included in this mysterious MLS investor's group. If you're using public funds for the stadium portion, contingent upon the success of those investor's ability to get into MLS, I think the public should have access to those persons, even if the soccer team to MLS is a private to private exchange. 

Okay, back to what I was saying. Grown-ups in the room. Nearly all of this is stuff that I have been saying for weeks, none of it publicly until I could get more information. Since that seems like that is going to be impossible to obtain, I'm just going to say it now out loud as my unsolicited thoughts.

The main points are as follows:

1. PSDA1 and PSDA2 should merge. 
2. The City should pay the cost to inter however many remains are found.
3. MLS to Indy Eleven
4. Punch your weight.

1. The concept of spreading around the tax base in the PSDA is a good idea. Having a stadium and a core development around it is also a good idea. I'm not sure that the original concept of the PSDA and the law was written around included using existing businesses, but rather was written more with the intent of providing new businesses and "transformational developments" to grow the City. However, best I can tell, it doesn't preclude the use of the existing businesses either. If the Mayor's Office didn't think that the rest of the Eleven Park development was going to be enough in a stadium shortfall, why not maintain that development and just add to it? The Mayor's idea isn't necessarily a poor one, just a poorly executed one at the moment. The stadium with the Eleven Park developments PLUS the other businesses should provide enough financial backstop. Why does it have to be either/or? Nearly everything associated with the stadium/MLS right now is hearsay, rumors, or lies. If nobody else has to say their sources, then my comments aren't any different, but I heard that the Mayor can't get his PSDA2 site. So he's on the verge of having a PSDA without a stadium site, which means no stadium, which means no MLS, which, ultimately, means this all has occurred for nothing, Unless you believe the conspiracy theorists out there that MLS is actively trying to kill off the "marquee" names in USL, in which case everything else in this article doesn't matter if that's true and Garber wins. Back to the point of this bullet item though, a combined PSDA1 + PSDA2 makes sense...in conjunction with below item #2. 

2. The very first time that the City allowed a development to occur on the Greenlawn Cemetery site without first having moved every single remain from it, the City made a mistake. The City then compounded that mistake over and over again. While some of those remains were likely considered "property" at that time, that's a mistake we can fix now. A mistake that no single developer (however hastily they purchased the property without fully vetting the site) should have to bear alone. The mistakes were our ancestors' and the bill has come due. Without properly interring the remains, the site will remain undevelopable and if that's the case, we might as well let Keystone sell the land back to the City, throw down some sod or seed, and put a sign by the road renaming the land Greenlawn Cemetery. Whether there is 1 remain, 650 remains, or the 15,000 remains that was mentioned in the meeting, the site is still a cemetery until the remains have been removed. That's on all of us. 

3. If MLS comes to Indianapolis, they should come to Indy Eleven. I, personally, don't care if that's with Ersal Ozdemir or some unknown investors with Ersal as a minority owner because he sells his team's name to the MLS owners for their use. There is no MLS talk in 2024 without Indy Eleven. That's a fact and one that shouldn't be overlooked by anybody on the MLS side of things. 

4. It's also okay to just punch your weight. John Cusack in High Fidelity provided me with that line that I'm going to adjust here for my use. "The thing I learned from the whole [MLS] debacle was that you have to punch your own weight. You see, [MLS], she's out of my class. ... Too much. I mean, what am I? I'm a middleweight. Hey, I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but I'm certainly not the dumbest." Naptown, that's us. It's okay to be a middleweight. It's okay to be the best damn middleweight that you can be. That could mean the team stops thinking about MLS and just tries to be the best damn USL Championship (or USL Premier if the often discussed pro/rel version of USL ever happens) they can be. In the words of Stephen Stills, "And if you can't be with the one you love, honey love the one you're with." Utilize the new billionaire owner Chuck Surack to help privately fund a 15k seat stadium that can be expanded if that need arrives, sooner or later. Punch your weight.

Since I'm not seeing any grown-ups, here's what I think could (or does) actually happen:

1. PSDA2 kills PSDA1.
2. MLS kills PSDA2.
3. Indy Eleven still without a stadium (more than a dozen years into its founding while new USL Championship side Rhode Island FC is already in the process of building a stadium) seeks other options that don't include a PSDA with an Indianapolis politician.
1. See above discussion about punching your weight.
2. Ersal/Keystone convince Mayor of Westfield that a stadium located in/around Grand Park makes for a good idea and synergy, hoping a different politician will be better.
   Narrator: "It won't."
4. As best I can tell, while Indy Eleven can technically use Carroll Stadium for its women's USL Super League team (reminder, that's a Division 1 level league, on par with NWSL), the lack of their own stadium kills the women's professional team because fans don't want to sit at Carroll Stadium in the winter and the players don't want to play on the turf in the winter. Players like Katie Soderstrom, who came back to Indy from a pro career in Europe, I think partially intrigued by the idea of being part of Indy Eleven's inaugural Super League team, watch that dream remain just a dream.

I've said it before on this site. This club isn't perfect. It's owner(s) isn't perfect. 

Right now, though, me writing this article is starting to feel like I'm part of the band playing on the Titanic. Titanic Park.

More thoughts on MLS to Indy

I've had another day to think about things. Another day to read informed and uninformed posts from people I respect, people I don't know, and people who I think are morons. Sorry, that's unfair. People that I think are maybe, or probably, unintelligent about the issues at hand, but speak as if they know what is going on. I'm going to be clear with you on where my information gaps are at in all of this. 

Let me be clear for the people in the back. I have no idea what is going on. I have guesses, suspicions, and some general knowledge of how these things have happened in the past to other clubs. There are probably only a handful of people that know most, and maybe not all, of the details, and all of those people are going to hold that information as close to the vest as they possibly can until it's impossible for them to hold it any longer. Keystone released an announcement about the Mayor and showed one of their cards. The Mayor had to respond and showed one of his cards. Both still have a bunch of cards in their hands.

Indy Eleven and Keystone have been doing this for years. How many of the Indy Eleven staff knew about what was going on with Keystone might be limited to just a couple people, or maybe none. I would guess that Greg Stremlaw had at least a surface level understanding, and maybe a little bit more, but I would bet that it didn't trickle down very far past him. Your day-to-day front office staff? They received the news with the rest of us. 

Politicians are synonymous with not giving all the details to all the people. The old saying, "lies, damned lies, and statistics" could probably be changed to "lies, damned lies, and politicians" at this point. I haven't seen a politician that I can fully trust in my entire life. So it doesn't surprise me at all that Mayor Hogsett was working behind-the-scenes on a potential MLS bid/stadium despite him having one of the shovels in his hand when the Indy Eleven had their groundbreaking ceremony last year. Did he know then that this week's events might take place? I doubt it, but you never know.

So whatever information we all know at this point, it's because somebody involved wanted you to know that piece. Whether they judged correctly on whether it was the appropriate time to pass along that information will be determined later. As I stated yesterday, Mayor Hogsett looked like he was being forced to give information yesterday. Like he wasn't ready to give what he did, but sure as hell wasn't going to give any more. From what I've seen today, that hasn't changed much.

As I also stated yesterday, Indy Eleven isn't perfect. Supporters know this. Some have decided to not be involved with the club due to some of those imperfections. I don't blame them for that. I have stuck around for 11 seasons despite some of my issues with the club. Maybe it's similar to a routine for them of not being able to "separate the art from the artist." Maybe I haven't given up on the soccer; "separating the soccer from the club" so to speak. Yet, despite those imperfections, I have dealt with some really good people with this club for a long time. I have had almost no interactions with Ersal, so I don't know him to be able to judge him. He doesn't know me. I bet he couldn't pick me out of a police lineup, despite my constant presence at games and in post-game media sessions, and that's okay. I don't do this to interact with the owner of the club. I do this to interact with other fans and supporters.

Those interactions, and the sweeping of them under the proverbial rug by the Mayor, are what have this fanbase up in arms. It's no secret that Ersal, the club, and many fans wanted MLS in the beginning. Let me rephrase that. It's no secret that Ersal, the club, and many fans wanted Division 1 status in the beginning. Early on, that meant MLS. Now, many/most of the long-time supporters have soured on MLS as they watched their brethren in other supporter groups around the country get booted to the side as billionaires bought teams in their city and forced the team that built relationships from the bottom up get kicked to the curb.

This is exactly what Mayor Hogsett proposed yesterday. He took what Indy Eleven and its supporters have built over the past 11 years and said it wasn't worth anything. For the past 24 hours, I have read people calling Indy Eleven "minor league." People who apparently don't understand how soccer in this country is different than the other major sports. Indy Eleven isn't a farm club to some "major" team. At this point, none of the USL Championship teams have that relationship. These are independent teams with professional soccer players that are working to bring soccer to their market and hopefully be financially successful at it. As I stated on X, Indy Eleven has a championship winning women's team, a championship winning Academy program, and 21 soccer clubs throughout the state that have an affiliation with the club. Indy also is set to have a 1st division women's soccer team starting in 2025, which could now be affected by the Mayor's announcement. 

Those are not actions of a "minor" club. Your continued use of the term undermines the rest of your point for soccer fans. 

One of those people was James Briggs with the Indy Star.

"Also, to state the obvious, Indy Eleven is a minor league team, a shaky status for long-term endurance. Indy Eleven has strong, passionate supporters and a cool culture. But the team is a niche, small-scale entertainment product that the vast majority of Indianapolis doesn't care about."

Given that James' previous statement before that one was this next gem, he lost me as being a reputable resource on this discussion:

"Indy Eleven's plan to build a 20,000-seat soccer stadium without an MLS team was like building a cruise ship and hoping it would bring the city an ocean."

I thought it when I read that part, but thankfully a former classmate of mine (technically my siblings' classmate) and former President of Indiana Sports Corp and former Chief of Staff under Mayor Ballard, Ryan Vaughn verbalized it for me:

It would be like building a NFL stadium without an NFL team. That would never…oh wait, it did. https://t.co/YI8Z0QDab2

— Ryan Vaughn (@RyanVaughnIndy) April 26, 2024

The City of Indianapolis has a history of doing bold things with sports teams and one of those teams that Mayor Hogsett referenced yesterday was a result of the very thing Ryan was implying. The Indianapolis Colts are no longer the Baltimore Colts because Indianapolis built a cruise ship and it brought the ocean. The difference is that Indy Eleven already has the team here. There doesn't need to be a reason to start a new one or steal one from somewhere else. The stadium just gives them a proper place to play, and maybe, in the future, be capable of being a 1st Division club (again, with the men since the women's team will already have that status next year when ("if" now?) they join the USL Super League). 

Then there were a couple of interactions I had with Jefferey Tompkins, who I normally like to read regarding his thoughts on developments. However, he showed he may understand developments (of which Eleven Park is definitely one), but doesn't understand soccer in this state by first continuing the "minor league" narrative, but also with a post that is he deleted where he stated that Indy Eleven could move to Fort Wayne because they too are planning a downtown development that could include a soccer stadium. Fort Wayne already has a professional soccer team in the USL system that is partially owned by former U.S. Men's National Team player DaMarcus Beasley. Part of the issue today was soccer fans having to explain how soccer works in this country.

Former Indy Eleven player Daniel Keller had this to say to Mayor Hogsett:

Advice for @IndyMayorJoe in MLS ambitions:

Any plan for MLS expansion without collaborating with the Brickyard Battalion would be a huge miscalculation. They are the lifeblood of the momentum we’ve already created.

Filling a stadium without their support would be impossible

— Daniel Keller (@dkeller20) April 26, 2024

I appreciated Keller has a player, but unfortunately, I disagree with him here. An MLS team in Indianapolis would fill a stadium. There are enough casual supporters who want to watch "major league" soccer to fill the stands. There are enough people out there who know Messi and some of the other major stars on those teams that they will come to the games that might not come to the Indy Eleven games. There are enough Indy Eleven soccer fans that just want to watch and support soccer in this city. An Indianapolis MLS team would be successful. Ersal knows it. The Brickyard Battalion and Indy Eleven soccer fans know it. There is interest in soccer in this city and state. 

The issue and outcry from Indy Eleven supporters is not (entirely) about bringing MLS to Indianapolis. It's that its being done without the people who have been supporting soccer in this city and state for a decade or more. It's looking around them to find something shinier. Daniel is right that a plan for MLS expansion without collaboration with the Brickyard Battalion is a miscalculation. If the Mayor had stood there yesterday with Ersal and a bunch of Indy Eleven fans next to him, this entire thing goes differently. 

The Indy Eleven fan base, but particularly the hard-core, long-term supporters value that Indy Eleven has been built, not bought. Maybe those are midwestern ideals, but those are things that are important to this fanbase and the Mayor overlooked everything about it.

I don't know if MLS will accept an Indianapolis bid to join the league. History has shown that Indianapolis have never been that high on MLS's list, and so I seriously doubt that anything comes of it except the Mayor spending a bunch of money for a marketing campaign that won't work. The collateral damage, though, could be the demise of Indy Eleven. I know some people who don't think that will be true, and I indicated yesterday that it could survive as least short-term as an F you to the Mayor from Ersal. Yet, fans have waited years for the idea of having their own home stadium instead of sharing one with the Colts or playing at a track and soccer stadium that was on the IUPUI Master Plan to be demolished before Indy Eleven became its tenant. That, now, seems less likely again.

But who knows? 

The Mayor? Ersal Ozdemir? Their inside circles? Beyond that, I haven't found anybody that really knows what's going on. So maybe I'll be wrong.

Maybe Ersal and Keystone/Indy Eleven will pivot and the proposed >$1.0B development will be scaled back. The stadium was set to be $200M of that total, with the rest being the hotel, apartments, etc. Maybe the stadium doesn't look like the renderings (again...) and it gets redesigned to serve the more immediate needs with the ability to expand, which I've been saying they should do for years, and not all of the development happens. Maybe Ersal and Keystone/Indy Eleven say that they took over the management of Grand Park in Westfield, maybe they should just manage Eleven Park and not turn it over to the Capital Improvement Board, which had been the plan. Maybe that's one more F you from Ersal to the Mayor, who I suspect won't be invited to that ribbon cutting ceremony. 

Who knows?

All day, I kept thinking about the phrase "Of all the unimportant things, football [soccer] is the most important." It's been attributed to Pope John Paul II, and whether that part is correct or not doesn't matter. What matters is that soccer and the community that it can build for them means a great deal. Soccer is important. The soccer community is important. The Mayor's announcement yesterday reminded me of that fact. I don't know all the Indy Eleven supporters, but I know a fair amount, and I believe a fair amount read the things that I write. The things we share are important to us, and we've built it that way. The community we built is important to us. The Mayor has forgotten that.

Like I said yesterday, tomorrow night I'll be at Carroll Stadium with a bunch of other people who like to watch "minor league" soccer and scream and cheer for Indy Eleven for 90-minutes. I have a feeling that a bunch of the people who you have been reading the past 24 hours can't say the same thing.

For now, that's where my soccer team plays, so that's where I'll be.

MLS to Indy - that ole trope

Look, nobody asked my opinion on this, but I've been writing about the Indy Eleven since the first games. I can't claim to be one of the original BYB members, but as the only grassroots media member to have stuck through the past 11 seasons with this team, maybe there's something that I can say about today's announcement that will resonate with other people.

Let me first fill in those who haven't heard. Today, at 5:30 PM, because that's a perfect time to make what he thinks is a major announcement, Mayor Hogsett announced that he had used the taxpayers' money to fly to New York City to met with Don Garber of MLS this past Monday to discuss the possibility of Indianapolis submitting an application to be part of Major League Soccer. Yesterday, to that end, he "submitted to the Metropolitan Development Commission and proposal for a new Professional Sports Development Area (PSDA) that would enable an alternative stadium site for the League and a prospective ownership group to consider, located near the Downtown Transit Center."

What he did and did not say spoke volumes. Or at least raised volumes worth of questions from Indy Eleven supporters, taxpayers, and Keystone/Indy Eleven.

At no point during his 5-ish minute press conference did he ever mention the current soccer team that resides in Indianapolis and has done so since 2013. 

At no point did he reference the groundbreaking ceremony he attended for Indy Eleven's Eleven Park less than a year ago, praising Ersal Ozdemir for his forward-thinking vision.

At no point did he say who was behind this bid application, because it's not the City that will pay for the MLS expansion fee that is generally considered to be in the $0.5 BILLION range these days, nor who would build the requisite soccer stadium for said potential MLS team, other than to say an "ownership group is forming - it includes a group of investors led by an experienced and well-respected sports executive, who has held leadership roles in MLS and global soccer.".

At no point did the Mayor reference any of the "minor league" teams in the City, just the Fever, the Pacers, and the Colts. Makes me wonder what he thinks of the Indy Fuel and the Indians, and even the forthcoming Indy Ignite pro volleyball team (which admittedly will play in Fishers...). Are those teams just as disposable as he apparently thinks about Indy Eleven?

At no point did he take questions from an audience that looked like it didn't include a single noticeable soccer supporter. They all clapped after the announcement, but I'm not sure why. The Mayor said his piece and then bolted out of the room like he stole something.

What I noticed most about the press conference announcement was how the Mayor seemed like he was at somebody's funeral giving depressing news or news that he didn't fully believe. It felt like a rushed announcement, given after normal work hours, like he was trying to get ahead of or respond to comments that others were making. It didn't feel like a complete announcement.

It's ironic to me that he did mention (or at least the press release mentioned) an "alternative stadium site," clearly referring to Eleven Park without actually calling it out, "located near the Downtown Transit Center," which if I'm not mistaken is about 2 blocks from the Indy Eleven offices. If this is due to a failing relationship between the Mayor and Ersal Ozdemir/Keystone/Indy Eleven, that's some stone cold brashness to suggest a site that close to the Indy Eleven headquarters. Why there might be some failing relationship is only speculation from me and I won't go down that path. 

If there was ever a way to light a fire under a team's fanbase that has been around for more than a decade, it's to deliver a press conference completely ignoring everything that fanbase has done for the City over that decade plus. Indy Eleven Twitter was, understandably, upset about the announcement, to say the least. Hell, if I was a bit more insane, the announcement probably only helped Ersal and Indy Eleven at this point. I won't go so far as to say it could have been orchestrated by Ozdemir, but I've seen dumber marketing campaigns.

Here's what I have to say about all this. If you look through this site even just a little, you'll know what the team has meant to me, and the millions of words I've written about the club. But Indy Eleven isn't perfect. They're not. The fans that are coming out of the woodwork right now to express their feelings know it isn't perfect. 

Yet, it's their club. 

This is a club that was built BY the fans, with the help of an owner with a vision and an original GM in Peter Wilt that saw what it could become. Through all the seasons, the Brickyard Battalion and fans have been there. For the Mayor to go around everything this club and its fans have tried to build for soccer in Indiana, it feels like he came into the game and kicked our soccer balls over the fence into the White River, spouting an application with an unnamed and faceless entity (or entities), with a mournful voice that was like, "I'm sorry, but this is in your best interest." 

Don't think that the entity is somebody like Simon or Irsay either. Money is flying all over the world right now with American investors in European clubs. There's no reason why that money can't stay domestically. The investors Mayor Hogsett references could literally be from anywhere, maybe in the world. If the Mayor has found a group to get a MLS team to Indy, I'm guessing it isn't local. And that's a large "IF" he found a group. His announcement was so vague, it sounded like a politician wrote it.

Indy Eleven had/has desires to be in MLS and Eleven Park was a step to make that move a bit more possible. They have been less vocal about it lately, and the rise of USL, and particularly the USL's Super League achieving first division status in competition with NWSL another first division league, have shown a potential way to be 1st division without being in MLS. However, you can't look past the fact that Indy Eleven, under current ownership even with the expanded ownership group, is likely to never going to be able to provide the upfront capital to get into MLS. 

If, and again that's a big IF, Mayor Hogsett somehow convinces MLS that they need to be in Indianapolis with local-ish teams already in Columbus, Chicago, Cincinnati, Nashville, and Saint Louis, and previously discussed city's like Detroit, it doesn't necessarily mean the end of Indy Eleven. I've written before about how many teams are based out of the Indiana area, and there could be room for two teams here; maybe not two first division teams, but two teams. I can envision Ersal and a bunch of BYB supporters staying with Indy Eleven purely out of spite for as long as they can muster the funds and the effort. Whether that's still in the USL Championship or requires moving down to League One, Ozdemir will likely give the ole F You try just to prove to the Mayor that the MLS team didn't kill his team. Indy will lose fans though, that's a given and Austin and San Diego have proven that the non-MLS team will suffer. Casual fans will support the "major league" team and Indy will have to try and survive with the die-hard fans who have supported Indy Eleven for a long time.

I don't how if, or how, the City and Indy Eleven plan for Eleven Park can be torn asunder, but if Soccer Warz has taught me anything over the years, it probably won't go down without a fight in court. We're missing all kinds of details and until those are brought to light, this is all speculation and a worthless press conference describing vague details that will go into an application process. I'm not getting worked up over this yet. There's too much politicking and positioning to know much of anything worthwhile.

For now, for the other Indy Eleven supporters or casual soccer fans that found this article because of the Mayor's announcement, I'll be at Carroll Stadium on Saturday night when Indy Eleven take on North Carolina FC.

That's where my soccer team plays.

The Business of Soccer

I originally set out with this site to write about soccer. All soccer. National Teams. MLS teams. NASL teams. USL teams. NWSL teams.College teams. However, it has taken a much more Indy Eleven-centric turn to it, mostly because I only have so many hours in the day and this is nowhere close to being the thing where I need to put my main time and focus. Yet if you're a fan of soccer in America, this past week has been filled with, seemingly, a lot more lows than highs and so I thought I would write down some of my thoughts.

 A week ago, the United States Men's National Team went down to Trinidad and Tobago and needed to get a win to advance to next year's World Cup, but would have likely moved on with a draw. No game is a given and the USMNT isn't exactly a top 10 world team (sitting at 28 at the time of the game), but there's no reason they couldn't get a positive result against the 99th ranked team in the world, playing some of their young guys with the team having already been eliminated from the World Cup. My thoughts on the game were summarized perfectly by Landon Donovan in an interview on the Dan Patrick Show:

"The most disturbing part for me was the lack of urgency displayed," Donovan said. "We all know sports anything can happen, you can lose games, that's all part of it, but the lack of urgency to really understand what was at stake was really disheartening for me, and, candidly, it was really hard to watch."

Unfortunately for me, that's a similar reaction I've had to the Indy Eleven this year. What I saw from the USMNT hit too close to home. The team is full of guys with a significant number of caps, including a starting XI with an average of 56.6 caps. Those are guys that know, or should know, what was at stake and how to approach a game of that magnitude. Not qualifying because of some of the other results in the HEX can be understood, but not qualifying because you don't get a positive result against Trinidad and Tobago is inexcusable.

Which leads us to Bruce Arena. Arena was brought on to get the team qualified for the World Cup after the U.S. lost Mexico in Colombus (we'll get to that topic in a minute) and then Costa Rica by a combined 6-1 score. He didn't get it done and I'm only moderately surprised he didn't stay on as head coach through the year until a permanent replacement was found. Let's get something straight though. This failure should put a tiny chink in his legacy, but Bruce Arena is still a legend in the United States. His teams have won 5 MLS Cups, 3 Supporter's Shields, an Open Cup, and he was MLS Coach of the Year three times. His teams, MLS & USMNT, achieved positive results 71% of the time. For me, the loss to T&T isn't on Arena. It's on the guys who didn't play with any urgency when they needed it most.

As long as I'm talking about U.S. Soccer, how many more lawsuits can it handle? The U.S. Women's National Team sued the U.S. Soccer Federation to be able to get equitable pay. That should never have had to happen. One team has won three World Cups and four Olympic gold medals. Regardless of what you think about men's versus women's soccer and how much more advanced the U.S. is in regards to women's soccer compared to other countries, success should be rewarded and the discrepancy in pay and benefits was embarrassing. It shouldn't have taken a lawsuit to resolve that issue.

Now we have the North American Soccer League suing for, well, I'm still a little unsure on that one. Monopoly practices I guess. Personally, I think the lawsuit is a Hail Mary from the NASL to try and save a failing league. To be honest, I appreciate the business model of the NASL over the MLS/USL, but at some point, you have to realize that it's not a successful business. Teams come and go routinely and the stability of the league is continually in question. At some point, regardless of how much fans love their clubs, a failed business venture is a failed business venture. That doesn't mean, however, that some of the teams in the league are failures. Though, based on attendance numbers, even some of the "successful" teams can't possibly be profitable businesses. All of that turmoil has led the league to its current place in the U.S. soccer landscape; a hot mess. A hot mess that I don't expect to be part of the U.S. soccer landscape next year. Though that's just based on my gut feeling and no inside knowledge of anything.

That's not to say that U.S. soccer's top-tier league hasn't had its own issues this past week. Today's announcement from the owner of the Columbus Crew, in essence, said that without a new stadium the team would likely be relocated to Austin, Texas, a city with which he has been in discussion. U.S. soccer fans, naturally, have been in a tizzy all day about this and in a general uproar against Columbus Crew owner Anthony Precourt. Soccer fans have always felt like they play second or third fiddle to the other major sports in the country; NFL, MLB, & NBA. MLS can't compete with the attendance nor salaries of those leagues. The USMNT has averaged in the low- to mid-30,000 attendance since 2007 and the USWNT has only broken the 20,000 mark twice since 1994 (both World Cup winning years). The soccer-specific stadiums around the country are routinely sized for the 20,000 to 25,000 range. Most Division 1 university football stadiums are twice that size. The Indy Eleven have averaged 8,000 people in a mess of a stadium in a mess of a league based only on the fervor of its fanbase, but I'm convinced that better stadium amenities could raise the attendance level. Regardless of the fact that Mapfre Stadium was the first soccer-specific stadium in the country, the success of the national teams in the stadium through the years, and it's general place in the history of soccer in this country, it's still just an aging stadium that can't compete with the other soccer stadiums throughout the country and Precourt knows this. Precourt may or may not be all the things that people have called him today, but he's also a businessman, the Columbus Crew is a business, and his tactic is not unprecedented.

This type of strong-arm tactics aren't going to help U.S. soccer fan's inferior complex and general attitude of not being respected. I say, welcome to the big leagues. The only way that an owner can make this kind of threat is if an owner thinks there's a chance. I know others will, and probably have, argued that Precourt is moving the team regardless. That may be true, but if he did, he would join a long line of major professional teams that have relocated (below is just a small sample).

• The Cubs recently played the Washington Nationals in Major League Baseball's National League Divisional Series. The Nationals used to be the Montreal Expos until 2005. 
• In my lifetime, in the National Basketball Association, the Buffalo Braves moved to San Diego and became the San Diego Clippers, which you now know as the Los Angeles Clippers. The Vancouver Grizzles are now the Memphis Grizzles. The Seattle Supersonics are now Oklahoma Thunder. 
• The National Football League is full of teams that used to be somewhere else. The Cleveland Rams moved to Los Angeles in 1946, then moved to St. Louis in 1995, and are now back in Los Angeles. The Oakland Raiders moved to Los Angeles in 1982, then back to Oakland in 1995, and are now headed to Las Vegas. The Baltimore Colts became the Indianapolis Colts in the dead of night.
• In the National Hockey League, the Minnesota North Stars moved to Dallas in 1993. What you know as the Colorado Avalanche used to be Quebec Nordiques prior to 1995 and the Phoenix Coyotes used to be the Winnipeg Jets.
• Pro soccer isn't immune either. The Houston Dynamo? Used to be the San Jose Earthquakes. This year's National Women's Soccer League's North Carolina Courage were known as the Western New York Flash as recently as last year.

If there's one thing I've learned writing about soccer in America, it's that there is a very distinct difference between the love of the sport and the business of the sport. At its core, professional soccer, like other professional sports, is a business with hundreds of thousands of people employed directly or indirectly by it. However, there are 22 MLS teams, 30 USL teams, 8 NASL teams, and 10 NWSL teams with owners that desire to make a profit from their business and have the ultimate say in what they do with their teams. 

Is that always in the best interest of the fans? No. 

Is that always in the best interest of growing the sport in the country? No.

Is that their prerogative? Yes.

That's the business of soccer.

Indy Eleven strive to #IndyMLS

Like many (most?) Indy Eleven fans, in the last 24 hours, I found that the team was going to be one of 12 teams submitting bids to become part of the next wave of MLS additions. MLS has indicated that they will be going from 24 teams to 28 teams by 2020 and so a dozen locations have put their name into the collective hat in hopes that their name is selected. I'm probably not the only one who found out from the article last night from Sports Illustrated's Brian Straus that the Eleven would be joining Charlotte, Cincinnati, Detroit, Nashville, Phoenix, Raleigh, Sacramento, St. Louis, San Antonio, San Diego, and Tampa Bay as the 12 hopefuls. The article also indicated that the team had a desire for a stadium that is heavily privately financed, as well as a desired location for the stadium. I'm going to touch on all of the major points of this news.

Let's start with the start. For as long as I can remember, MLS has been in the back of most Indy Eleven fans and staff minds, but it never really seemed to be the major driving force behind any of the decisions. To be in MLS at this time, a soccer-specific stadium is basically a prerequisite and the Eleven barely received any traction from that standpoint until last year. Even then, my impressions of the proceedings seemed like a long-shot. Yet the team has routinely stated, and it's been quoted significantly, that their goal was to be a Division 1 team on a Division 2 budget. Perhaps subtly reminding everyone that they were going to one day strive to actually be Division 1, without ever looking like they were so desperate to get in that they were willing to do anything to do it. The team continues to plug along trying to provide the best on- and off-field entertainment that they can for the City of Indianapolis, all within a reasonable budget. Mr. Ozdemir opened the purse strings a little this year to bring in some more experienced (and by extension, probably more expensive) players, but it never seemed like he would ever go the Cosmos' route of hemorrhaging the budget to chase a Championship. Act like a professional organization and eventually people will take notice. The Eleven have certainly done that to date.

Given that the Eleven, and Ozdemir in particular, seemed to be one of the major driving forces helping keep the NASL alive this off-season, the bid to be part of MLS seems all the more surprising to me. I've questioned a couple times already today about what the NASL think of the Eleven's bid. Some of the other cities in the running have not be secretive about their MLS desires, but the Eleven have looked to be truly committed to the NASL in the near-term. Tampa Bay barely had time for the dust to settle on their departure from the NASL before announcing their desire to be part of MLS. Cincinnati made a huge spectacle out of Commissioner Garber's visit there. The NASL's public relations battle over the off-season is not going to be helped out by the fact that just weeks after getting provisional Division 2 status by merely holding onto some teams, like the Eleven, one of those teams then turns around and expresses their desire to be somewhere else. So the timing by the team confuses me.

Brian Straus' article further indicated:

"the club’s MLS stadium will be a public-private partnership and that Ozdemir and his unnamed partners would be kicking in a “significant amount of private money.”

Ozdemir will remain the majority owner.

We've now found out more about those "unnamed partners" thanks to an article in the Indianapolis Business Journal.

On Tuesday, Eleven officials unveiled the names of its potential investors—a group that includes local auto dealer Andy Mohr; Elwood Staffing President Mark Elwood; Heritage Environmental Services President Jeff Laborsky; and Mickey Maurer, a shareholder in The National Bank of Indianapolis and IBJ Corp., parent company of the Indianapolis Business Journal.

Local partners, but not exactly earth-shattering money partners. Detroit's bid is being pulled together by NBA team owners Tom Gores and Dan Gilbert, Detroit Pistons and Cleveland Cavaliers, respectively. The San Antonio bid is from Spurs Sports & Entertainment. Yes, the San Antonio Spurs. These are not rarities in these bids. Several of the others have high profile owner's groups. I'm not saying that Mr. Ozdemir and Andy Mohr don't make a lot of money, but they're on a different level than some of these other groups. I guess it doesn't matter how they get the money or how many investors it ultimately takes, but they apparently think they can get enough money for the MLS entry fee and the "significant amount of private money" for the stadium. I just have to wonder if "who" the money comes from is as important as "how much" money they can bring.

I've talked about the stadium a lot on this site. However, back in December 2014 I had my first attempt at really trying to figure out where a stadium could even be physically located in Indianapolis given some of the comments about what the team desired for a stadium. Using the Chicago Fire's Toyota Park as my basis because of Peter Wilt's involvement with both teams, I scoured the city looking for locations. One of the places that continually came back to me as an extremely viable location was what I called Sand Street because of Google's reference to a street that runs through the site, but which any Indy resident who has ever driven in the area will tell you is not really a street any longer. I think there's still a street sign last time I looked, but there's also a fence blocking both ends of the "street." The other cross streets would have been an easier way to find it, but I always like the alliteration of calling it Sand Street Stadium. From Brian's article, "If built, the new stadium would be located in downtown Indianapolis between the Colts’ Lucas Oil Stadium and the White River." Sand Street Stadium fits that description.

Of all the sites I evaluated, it was the one that I continually thought had the most promise of checking all of the desired boxes, particularly since the former GM Stamping Plant site was designated for other uses at the time I evaluated. That site still seems promising, but the Sand Street site has advantages that have likely pushed it to the forefront, including, but not limited to, the fact that the GM Stamping Plant seems to be getting a lot of attention for a lot of other developments and would be more expensive. Another benefit is that Sand Street has multiple public transportation stops within a quarter mile of the location. The ability of spectators to access the stadium through public transportation has always been a factor for Indy Eleven's stadium site, largely because of Peter Wilt's involvement with the Chicago Fire and Toyota Park's lack of access. Peter learned a lesson and brought it to Indy. It's also less than half a mile to both Lucas Oil Stadium, where the Colts play, and Victory Field, where Indy's AAA baseball team plays. As I said in 2014, it helps create a "sports zone" in the southwest section of downtown Indianapolis. The NCAA headquarters are nearby, as well as the Indianapolis Zoo, further creating a "sports and entertainment area" that so many of the other bids are striving to achieve.

I have no idea what "significant" private money implies, but the latest articles are indicating $100M for the stadium. If the team can pull 3/4 of that from private money, I have a feeling that the State and Indianapolis will find a way to help with the other 1/4. Though I'm just basing that on last year's legislative session where it looked like the State was going to give about $25M before everything ran out of time. Though that was also for a State-owned stadium located on IUPUI's campus so they may feel differently for this location and stadium.

Lastly, the team's competition for the MLS spots include Charlotte, Cincinnati, Detroit, Nashville, Phoenix, Raleigh, Sacramento, St. Louis, San Antonio, San Diego, and Tampa Bay as previously noted. Of all those locations, Sacramento seems to be the most logical. They check all the boxes for having a successful club. They are consistently one of the leaders in USL for attendance, averaging over 11,000 last year, well above the league's average of around 3,500. They have a fan-base ready to make the jump and a stadium plan that is ready to go as soon as given the word. I'm not sure how they get kept out.

I don't have enough information to give a truly formed opinion on the viability of most of the other teams, but some of the higher profile owner's groups gives me concern about the Eleven's chances. The two teams that could really throw a wrench into an #IndyMLS bid are Cincinnati and St. Louis. Cincinnati averaged over 17,000 people at their games in their inaugural season and it sounds like ticket sales have been brisk for season two. St. Louis has long been considered a hot-spot of soccer in America and the city recently lost their NFL team to Los Angeles. An MLS team in either of those two towns could severely dampen the Eleven's chances due to a perceived "sufficiency of Midwestern teams."

I don't know if this was a legit bid or more of a we-need-to-do-this-to-stay-in-the-discussion on the chance that the league decides to go past 28 teams. I suspect that the additional partners are all contingent on the team actually winning the MLS bid and if the team isn't selected, all of those partners will no longer be around. So a new stadium for the Eleven in the NASL or the USL goes back to the drawing board and Indy Eleven fans will continue to sit in a stadium designed for track and field events in the 1980s.

As part of the "grassroots" media for the Eleven, I fully expect that despite Ozdemir's assurances, a successful MLS bid will eliminate the press credentials that I enjoy to be able to try and write better content. A blog on the internet isn't really needed to help with exposure when your games are covered by the major networks and discussed by Alexi Lalas, Taylor Twellman, Brian Straus, and Grant Wahl. Regardless, a move to MLS would provide a level of stability for the Eleven that the NASL and USL have not convinced me they can provide, meaning that the Eleven will be around for a long time for me to enjoy.

Like many people, I have objections to the way the business of MLS is run, but a legit stadium in a more stable league allowing me to write about the team and the game that I love for a long time will be well worth the lost press pass if it comes to that. Now we play the waiting game to see if there is a move to MLS and what happens with the NASL & USL's provisional Division 2 status.

Mike Magee's Day Off

I love Ferris Bueller.  I hate when people mess with it with rumors of a sequel (unless, of course, Christa and I write it...).  I'm ok with honoring it though.

For those of you who haven't seen Ferris Bueller's Day Off, well, what are you waiting for?  Why haven't you watched one of the all-time great movies about ditching your normal life to hang out with your girlfriend, best friend, and the City of Chicago?  For those that have seen it, enjoy this well-done version using Mike Magee of the Chicago Fire, Omar Gonzalez, Sydney Leroux, Hope Solo, Thierry Henry, Michael Bradley, Bruce Arena, and a few other cameos.