The Capital Improvements Board's MLS Indy team & stadium survey

I don't know how many people have received the email from Lucas Oil Stadium and the Capital Improvements Board of Managers (CIB) last month requesting participation in a survey to "understand market support for an MLS expansion team playing in a new soccer-specific stadium in Indianapolis," but I wanted to walk through some of the survey and my responses. I tried to get screen captures of each question as I went, but I think I missed some of the pages. 

It's difficult to tell where anybody actually stands on this because so much of the information that I've heard or that has been published by other sources continues to feel like pissing matches between the Mayor's camp and Ersal's camp. Even with the recent discussion about the Vancouver Whitecaps potentially having their franchise relocated (not an unprecedented thing in MLS), to a different city thereby not taking of the presumed future new franchise spots, I still haven't seem any articles that include Indianapolis as one of the prime and viable options (though there were some rumors that seem to be a stretch for me to believe). As a result, it's difficult to ascertain the end goal of the CIB's MLS stadium survey. Legitimate inquiry into the interest and viability of a MLS team in Indianapolis, or political theater? 

If it's theater, I've been an actor in this play for the past dozen years, so I might as well do what I do, which is talk about my experiences with professional soccer in Indianapolis.

From the email requesting participation in the survey:

The CIB is conducting a survey aimed at understanding thoughts and opinions on a variety of topics including:

• Current Indianapolis Sports Engagement & Attitude towards MLS in Indianapolis
• Stadium Amenities & Game Day Atmosphere
• Seating Opportunities
• Food and Beverage Preferences
• Intended Engagement with MLS in Indianapolis

After clicking the link to get to the survey, the opening Introduction page includes a series of photos of what is expected to be similar stadiums from around MLS and reiterated the intent of the survey. An interesting aspect to the survey that immediately came to mind was that the colors that the CIB chose to utilize for the survey are either exactly like, or at a minimum very similar, to those of the Indiana Pacers, owned by the Simons. Does that mean anything? Maybe not. Still an interesting color selection from my perspective.

The very first question (and my answer) asked was "How would you characterize your attitude toward an expansion MLS team being awarded to Indianapolis?

• Very Positive
• Somewhat Positive
• Neutral
• Somewhat Negative
• Very Negative

"Why do you feel this way?"

I appreciate the potential for a 1st division soccer league team, but feel that the presence of Indianapolis' current professional team, Indy Eleven, should be considered and incorporated into any team that moves forward. The fans of that team should not be alienated with a new team, and I feel it is undesirable for that team to fold if a MLS team were to materialize.

"How would you characterize your attitude toward the development of a new soccer-specific MLS stadium in Indianapolis?

• Very Positive
• Somewhat Positive
• Neutral
• Somewhat Negative
• Very Negative

It's no surprise that I think a soccer-specific stadium would be a good thing. I've literally said it on this site for more than a decade. 

"Why do you feel this way?"

A soccer specific stadium allows for a fan experience catered to soccer fans, while also allowing for scheduling flexibility and potential for other types of soccer events to take place (NCAA tournament games, national team games, etc.)

Other notable questions within the survey are the following:

 "Why are you interested in purchasing season tickets?"

• Fan of Soccer in General
• Fan of Indianapolis Sports
• Fan of Sports in General
• Opportunity to Entertain Friends/Family
• Opportunity to Entertain Clients/Employees/Other Business Uses
• Convenient Stadium Location
• Other, Please Specify

"Ignoring price, what the the most important factors to you when considering the purchase of season tickets at a new Indianapolis MLS stadium? Please select up to 10 factors."

• Proximity to the Pitch
• Proximity to the Centerline
• Co-Location with Friends/Family
• Ease of Access to Seat
• Seat Comfort
• Ease of Access to Key Stadium Locations (i.e. Entrance/Exits, Bars, Restrooms, Concessions)
• Access to Private Club Lounge / Membership Club
• Seats in the Sun
• Seats in the Shade
• Covered Seating
• Pre-Match Activities (Fan Plazas, Party Areas)
• Ability to Purchase Parking / Parking Included
• Private Stadium Entrances
• Enhanced Benefits (Invitations to Private VIP Events, Concierge Service)
• Access to Third-Party Events
• Access to Enhanced Food & Beverage Offerings
• Access to All-Inclusive Food & Beverage Offerings
• Seats on the Home Side of the Stadium
• Seats on the Visitors Side of the Stadium
• Other, Please Specify

After a few follow-up questions about those factors, including ranking my personal preference for the items that I selected, the survey moved into the Seating Opportunities section. The first section described each of the seating choices, as well as where those choses would reside within the stadium. After the sections were described, the survey then asked, "if these were your only options, which would you chose?" A page of 5 options were then presented with a section of the seating highlighted, what the section was designated (reserved, club, general, etc.), and the potential price. This went on for 10 pages, giving a total of 50 price options. However, as I went through the sections, it felt like there were sections that were highlighted more than once. After looking back through my screenshots of the options, that turned out to be true, with the Section 7 seats having 6 different price points, drastically different from each other and with different designations (reserved versus club). I assume that's to gauge how much people are willing to pay for certain sections of the stadium, but specifically for that section which had the most alternatives and widest range, the cost ranged from $660 reserved seats to $3,475 club seats. Within all of the 50 prices points, the minimum season ticket price was $510 for a reserved seat and the maximum was a $5,100 club seat. The average of all the price points listed, regardless of type of seat was $1,850. Limiting the evaluation to just the sections that were described as Reserved, the average season ticket cost was $1,177. 

By contrast, the most expensive season ticket for Indy Eleven for the 2026 season was $1,062. Admittedly, the new soccer-specific stadium would have much better seating, concessions not run out of cargo containers or food trucks, and significantly more restroom facilities, while also having actual locker rooms for the players, media facilities, no track, etc., and be associated with 1st Division soccer in this country, but that's a significant jump in price point for most current Indy Eleven fans, i.e. the people who are currently supporting professional soccer in Indianapolis.

The following summarizes each of the seating options, and the survey's descriptions and locations for each type of seat.

"A potential MLS stadium in Indianapolis could feature a variety of seating options designed to accommodate all types of fans, including:

• 
  Reserved Seating
• Reserved Seating locations could include standard-sized stadium seats with access to general concessions, restrooms, and public entrances. 
• The purchase of a Reserved Seat would include tickets to all Indianapolis MLS preseason and regular home games played at the stadium each year. Additionally, it would provide priority access to purchase tickets to playoff games and other select stadium events.
• Location
• Lower Level East Centerline
• Lower Level East Sideline
• Lower Level Corners
• Lower Level 18-Yard Box
• Lower Level Endline
• Upper Level East Centerline
• Upper Level East Sideline
• Upper Level East 18-Yard Box
• Upper Level Corners
• Upper Level Endline

• 
  Premium General Admission Seating
• Premium General Admission Seating could offer an elevated experience from reserved seating. These seats could be configured as wider, padded stadium seats, or as ledge seats with a drink rail in front. Premium General Admissions Seats could also provide access to a private concourse with enhanced food & beverage options. 
• The purchase of a Premium General Admission Seat would include tickets to all Indianapolis MLS preseason and regular home games played at the stadium each year. Additionally, it would provide priority access to purchase tickets to playoff games and other select stadium events.
• Location
• Lower Level East Centerline
• Lower Level East Sideline
• Lower Level North Endline

• 
  Club Seating
• Club Seating could feature wider, padded seats with access to a private, climate-controlled lounge offering upscale food and beverage options. Additional benefits may include private restrooms, exclusive stadium entrances, and preferred parking access. 
• The purchase of a Club Seat would include tickets to all Indianapolis MLS preseason and regular home games played at the stadium each year. Additionally, it would provide priority access to purchase tickets to playoff games and most other stadium events.

• 
  Small Group Seating
• Small Group Seating could be designed to accommodate 4 guests in a semi-private environment, making it ideal for families, friends, or small businesses. Small Group Seating may include in-box wait service and access to upscale food and beverage options within a private club lounge located near the seating area. 
• The purchase of a Small Group Seating would include tickets to all Indianapolis MLS preseason and regular home games played at the stadium each year. Additionally, it would provide priority access to purchase tickets to playoff games and other stadium events.

• 
  Luxury Suites
• Luxury Suites could offer a private, premium experience for groups of 8 or more guests. Amenities may include a private lounge area with televisions, high-end decor, and a fully appointed service area featuring a buffet counter, refrigerator, and wet bar. 
• The purchase of a Luxury Suite would include tickets to all Indianapolis MLS preseason and regular home games played at the stadium each year. Additionally, it would provide priority access to purchase tickets to playoff games and most other stadium events.

Eleven Park at Grand Park

In May 2023, Indy Eleven had an official groundbreaking ceremony on the Eleven Park site, formerly the Diamond Chain factory, with a stated goal of having the stadium open in time for the women's USL Super League team to start their inaugural season in the league in August 2025. At the time, I thought it was optimistic for them to meet that goal given that I knew from colleagues in my business that the stadium was still under design. I had no idea that nearly 900 days later, there wouldn't be a stadium and because there was no stadium, there wouldn't be a USL Super League team. Since my article in June 2023 talking about the groundbreaking, I've written 7 other articles talking either about the stadium, or more specifically, the lack of a stadium. Admittedly, one of those was poking fun at the easter egg items in the renderings for the stadium, but all the others discussed the lack of progress on the stadium that hasn't occurred after the Mayor of Indianapolis railroaded the team's plan for the Professional Sports Development Area and took it over for himself as he attempts to get a MLS team to Indy including one article last year around this exact same time discussing the Henry Street Bridge plan versus Indy's lack of plan. To date, that has been an unsuccessful task for the Mayor, but the Indianapolis Metropolitan Development Commission did recently vote to allow the City to purchase the downtown heliport, long suspected to be the preferred City location for an MLS stadium, and there have been other steps to prepare for a team that likely may never come, such as the Capital Improvement Board issuing a Request for Proposal in July related to the construction of the proposed stadium.

Since my article last year, there hasn't been a single announcement from Indy Eleven about their plan for Eleven Park, if there even is a plan for Eleven Park. In the sarcastic words of Roz, "you're stunned silence is very reassuring." 

So if there isn't a plan for the land at the Diamond Chain/Greenlawn Cemetery site, and all indications (none) would imply that that there isn't a plan for the site, but if we assume that a plan does exist for the team to continue working towards having its own stadium, then where will it be located? Arguments could be made for the Sand Street location and I have even taken a fresh look at what could be done at the Carroll Stadium site. Carroll Stadium is obviously still owned by Indiana University so that doesn't make it an ideal location if you're trying to control the scheduling, financing, and the income of the stadium. When Indy Eleven needed a place to start their life as a new club, Carroll Stadium was a good choice, and I wrote a tribute to the stadium in 2018 when the club transitioned from the NASL to the USL and from Carroll Stadium to Lucas Oil Stadium. Back then though, the 2012 IUPUI Master Plan had the grandstand of the stadium being removed:

"To create visual connectivity to the riverfront park, it is recommended that the Michael A. Carroll Stadium grand stands be removed. The track will remain and be improved as part of the active recreational portion of the park."

Indy Eleven saved the grand stand of Carroll Stadium. They made it better. The team transitioned to a much "better" stadium for a bit when they played in Lucas Oil Stadium, but then returned to the spiritual home of the team. The spiritual home of the team, though, is starting to feel like a final resting place instead of a home, and the long-time fans want to see the stadium promise come true.  

At one point, it might have been logistically possible for Ersal and the team to purchase the stadium from IU, but that no longer seems to be a potential. There was a follow-up study to the 2012 Master Plan and then a 2020 update to the Master Plan that viewed the stadium in a different light. Admittedly, the update occurred during the period when Indy was playing in Lucas Oil Stadium, so now that Indy is back in Carroll, there might be yet another update to the Master Plan in the works. However, the language from the 2020 Master Plan updated indicated (emphasis mine):

"A follow-up 2019 study identified the needs of the campus, as well as the needs of the Indianapolis amateur sports community which are lacking on campus and in the community. A flexible, multi-sport fieldhouse which could accommodate competition basketball, hockey, and gymnastics, as well as other sports was proposed south of the Herron School of Art and Design. [editor: this is currently in construction] The location reinforces the Sports District along the White River and offers great community access. 

The 2019 study also identified the need to improve Carroll Stadium with amenities, support spaces, and improved service. The study also identified the opportunity to develop an improved image and access to the stadium from the White River Trail which could flip the “front door” of the stadium towards the river and the trail. A new event plaza is proposed which can be used before events at the stadium and used as a space for the community who are using the trail."

While improved amenities, support spaces, and service would all be welcome additions for fans who have been using the facility the past 12 Indy Eleven seasons, this doesn't get Ersal and the team any closer to having their own stadium where they have more control over it. As I look at it though, a yet again reimagined look to the stadium could fit well in the existing space, particularly if you think about something that I mentioned a few years ago talking about my journey into watching the Scottish Professional Soccer League.

Tynecastle Park - Google Earth 3D Rendering

Tynecastle Park. 

For those that don't know, Tynecastle Park is the stadium where the Heart of Midlothian play their home games.

Let me back up one more step. Heart of Midlothian is a club that plays in the top level of the Scottish Professional League and are currently sitting at the top of the table above even Rangers or Celtic. 

Okay, back to Tynecastle Park. When I asked Nicky Law and Nick Ross about some of their favorite Scottish stadiums, they both, independently from each other, listed Tynecastle as one of their favorites. Sean McAuley spent 1992 - 1995 in St. Johnstone in the SPFL and he told me that Tynecastle was one of his favorites too ("Good history and I always played well there!!!"). Tynecastle has a capacity of approximately 20,000, with a length of 98 m (107.2 yd) and a width of 68 m (74.4 yd). Check out these couple of videos (the 2nd one is a lot of talking, so depending on your level of focus, you might want to skim through it).

Rough Sketch of Tynecastle at Carroll Stadium Location

https://youtu.be/O1-Zh-o1YKE?si=DOjgRknWLJsIUa29
https://youtu.be/bnyNuvvfPFY?si=A700kcdE_O0BaYNS

Why am I talking about Tynecastle Park so much? Because I think it would fit nicely in the space of what is available at Carroll Stadium. The boxy nature, and some of the other Scottish football stadiums for that matter, make that style of stadium a good fit in a location like Carroll Stadium, because there isn't a lot of extra building extending out where not necessary. I would love to see this kind of stadium for Indy Eleven, but then I've already said that before in my journey into the SFPL article.

Which is all leading up to my current thought for an Indy Eleven stadium. You saw the name of the article, so I'm sure you saw where this was going.

Grand Park. 

Or more specifically now, Droplight Grand Park Sports Campus, as it was announced this past week that Grand Park Sports & Entertainment had entered into a naming rights partnership with Droplight. Whatever you want to call it, I've come around to the idea that it's the right place for Indy Eleven to call home moving forward. 

Earlier this year, Grand Park released a Master Plan that included a massive expansion of the facilities. An expansion around the campus that includes parking garages, housing, offices, a park with a ferris wheel, an indoor ice arena, and most notably as it relates to this article, a 10,000-seat multi-purpose stadium. 

A 10,000-seat multi-purpose stadium that would be located at the intersection of 186th Street and Grand Park Boulevard, that would be "visible from the eastern approach along E 186th Street, [that] announces your arrival at the Grand Park District." Just north of the stadium, Ed Carpenter Racing has already agreed to build a new "76,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility for all racing operations, engineering, and technical development." Part of that project also includes a new City-funded parking garage to replace the parking lots that are intended to go away with the Master Plan expansion plans. As a sidenote, I do wonder what that will do for the frequent RVs that are parked in the lots that families use when they are participating in events at the facility. 

My suggestion is to forego the 10,000-seat stadium, but rather build a 15,000-seat stadium to serve as Indy Eleven's new permanent home that would allow them to meet the standards to be part of the USL First Division league when it officially starts in 2028. First Division clubs in the United States are required to have 15,000 seats to qualify for First Division status. 

Many people will say, and have said when I floated this idea on X, that if Indy made that move, they would no longer go to games. I'm sorry, but this now makes the most sense to me. Whatever kind of relationship Ersal thought that he had with the previous and current Mayors of Indianapolis was flipped on its head when the current Mayor, Mayor Hogsett, took over the PSDA that was created specifically with Indy Eleven in mind. The current pissing match of egos likely means neither wants to back down, but it could be at the detriment of Indy Eleven if Ersal doesn't reconsider the path that he and the team have been taking since the days when Peter Wilt suggested a stadium before the team had ever played a single game. It has always been stated that the stadium was going to be in Indianapolis. That can be the path until it isn't.

Would Peter Wilt, the man who had learned from his Chicago days that a stadium in the suburb could be problematic and engrained that lesson into Ersal, agree with me? I didn't ask him, but this isn't Peter's team any longer. This club feels like it's floundering to find its footing of who it wants to be, and maybe that means moving to Westfield and Grand Park to reestablish themselves.

Why does this make sense to me?

Because they're already there.

"The City of Westfield is pleased to announce a transformative long-term collaboration with multiple partners, including Indianapolis-based Keystone Group, Indy Sports & Entertainment, Indy Eleven, and Bullpen Ventures, solidifying a landmark public-private partnership. 

... 

Grand Park and Indy Eleven have long-established relationships, with the multipurpose sports campus serving as the Indy Eleven’s Official Training Center. Indy Sports & Entertainment intends to build a new world-class training facility at Grand Park that will become the official training home of the Indy Eleven and the new women’s professional team that will play in the Super League.

... 

The City of Westfield will retain ownership of Grand Park, with the terms of the partnership outlining Grand Park Sports & Entertainment’s commitment to the development and management of the campus for up to forty years, valued at 300 million dollars to the City of Westfield.

This collaboration symbolizes a strategic convergence between public and private entities, poised to propel Grand Park into a new era of excellence, growth, and community engagement."

The only thing that has been in Indianapolis for Indy Eleven is 1) their official HQ where the majority of the front office staff resides, 2) the men's first team playing at Carroll Stadium, 3) an empty Diamond Chain lot that will likely be too cost prohibitive to ever build what they wanted to build in Eleven Park, and 4) a Mayor who no longer cares about the potential $1B in investment that was going to go into the Eleven Park campus. The remainder of the Indy Eleven enterprise happens within Grand Park, including now having the owner's other company collaborating on the development and management of the campus. Everything that they had envisioned doing with Eleven Park is incorporated into the Grand Park Master Plan.

To me, the question isn't why should Indy move to Westfield and Grand Park, the question is why shouldn't they? Putting the stadium at Grand Park consolidates everybody into a single location from men's first team to women's team(s), to the Academy, and training facilities. If you want to go to an Indy Eleven game, regardless of who it is playing, you go to one place.

Will they lose some of the fans from south side of Indianapolis? Probably. Could they pick up more fans from north of Indy? Probably.

The counties of Hamilton (where Grand Park is located) and Boone and Madison (the two adjacent counties) account for a 2020 census population of approximately 550,000 people. The similarly located counties south of Indianapolis and Marion County (Morgan, Johnson, and Shelby) account for approximately 279,000 people. Just in a sheer numbers game, catering to the northern fans makes sense. When I asked the Indy front office if they would share with me heat map numbers of season ticket holders based on zip codes, I was, not surprisingly, told they wouldn't share that information with me. They did say, however, "I can at least provide top-line feedback that we do draw very well from North of the City especially and that base is continuing to grow."

Placing a stadium in that base is only going to help.

The excavation for the Henry Street bridge project recently completed its "Archaeologist-led excavation, rather than Contractor-led excavation" and uncovered more than 1,700 grave shafts. ("Grave Shaft: A burial area consisting of a rectangular pit with vertical sides; also known as a grave, a grave shaft can contain one, multiple, or no human remains within it."). The excavation also unearthed some of the concrete supports for the Federal League Park baseball stadium from 1914 (yes, the site was also used for a baseball stadium more than a century ago), so it seems realistic that the Eleven Park site could also be littered with building supports in addition to the unknown quantity of human remains that are likely more extensive than previously suspected since the Henry Street project had almost 3 times the amount that was originally anticipated to be expected. The cost to excavate the approximately 18-acre site to find every human remain would be astronomical and beyond what Ersal and Indy Eleven are capable or willing to do. 

There's an obvious level of irony that it's a cemetery that has caused the death of a development project, but it doesn't have to be the death of the stadium. The human remains from Greenlawn have been reinterred over the years and there's no reason that the remains of Eleven Park can't be relocated somewhere else too.

To me, the logical new location is Grand Park. I would like it to look like some version of Tynecastle Park. I think that version of a stadium would work nicely at Grand Park.

Henry Street Bridge and Eleven Park

Depending on your news source, you might have seen that the Henry Street Bridge project will begin construction of Phase 2 this week. Some of you might be asking, why I'm talking about an Indianapolis Department of Public Works project on a soccer-specific, and more specifically, generally an Indy Eleven-centric-specific site? That's because the Henry Street Bridge project is relevant to this site's content since it is located immediately south of the lot that was intended to be the future home of Eleven Park. In the aerial view of the proposed bridge, the lot with all the trees would be the "intended" location of Eleven Park. 

I say "was intended" because Mayor Hogsett's desired plan to kill the Eleven Park development made it through all the required hoops to move the Professional Sports Development Area  (PSDA) from the Eleven Park site to the PSDA #2 site, which has been indicated to be the existing heliport site. Though best I can tell, the State Budget Committee has not discussed the finances of the Mayor's proposed site, at least not in a public meeting. So Indianapolis residents and Indy Eleven fans still do not have any indication regarding the Mayor's mysterious MLS ownership group nor whether the State Budget Committee will continue to plow down the Mayor's path of officially submitting for a bid to join MLS. A bid that I continue to suspect will be rejected, particularly in the near-term.

In the three months since the Mayor dropped the MLS bombshell on Indy Eleven fans, all the hurdles to move the State funding from the Keystone property to the Mayor's preferred location have moved forward. What hasn't moved forward is any kind of progress at the Eleven Park site. I periodically drive by the site just to see if there is anything that looks different from my last drive-by. The night of the New Mexico United, the Indianapolis Colts also had a preseason game and the parking lot that once was the site of the stadium groundbreaking was being used for event parking for the Indianapolis Colts' game. This past weekend when I drove by on my way to Carroll Stadium before the Pittsburgh game, the construction trailer that had been sitting on the lot for the past year was no longer there. I can't recall if it was there the night of the Colts' game, but the trailer felt like a more recent departure. 

As Indy Eleven and Keystone remove things from the location or use a part of it for event parking, the Mayor and the Indianapolis DPW will be moving things into the area. The Phase 2 work (Phase 1 began on the west side of the White River in January) will take place within the White River. From the City's announcement, the contractor "is expected to begin removing the existing bridge piers in the White River north of Oliver Avenue. Bridge construction will begin at the west side at the levee later this year." Phase 3 will connect the bridge to Kentucky Avenue with new roadway.

That last part of the announcement about Phase 2 is key because that gives the City time to finalize their plan for the remains associated with the burial ground that used to be the Greenlawn Cemetery that are within the Henry Street Bridge's right-of-way for the Phase 3 section of the project. As was indicated in the June presentation of the White River Innovation District that includes the Henry Street Bridge, the DPW and City staff made sure to point out that the Henry Street Bridge, but particularly the roadwork, would be an "Archaeologist-led excavation, rather than Contractor-led excavation" and that "Archaeology work will begin in late 2024." 

I continue to find the subtle "contractor-led" jab simultaneously amusing and a bit childish. 

So while the City's plan continues to move forward, Indy Eleven and Keystone, conversely, look to be moving backwards. I chose to not reach out to the club before this article because it hasn't done me much good in the past when it comes to discussions about the stadium. However, as it stands, publicly, Indy have no announcements on any stadium plans, and have naturally begun season ticket renewals at Carroll Stadium. I'm sure the Eleven Park design is on hold because any plan related to the burial grounds' remains that cover significantly more area than the Henry Street Bridge roadway can no longer include any public-funded/assisted money since the Mayor has shifted the PSDA to another site. So unless there are some backdoor discussions about transferring the site and/or the City helping with the cost for interment of the remains, Keystone has ~25-acres that are going to be difficult to develop.

There are some secondary effects of losing the stadium as well. It appears that the the Indy Eleven USL Super League team is now, at a minimum, on hold. Putting the Super League team on hold means that Coach Dolinsky found another team in Lexington where he could run their USL W League team and be part of the Super League coaching staff. Shortly, we all expect that the MLS will officially state that Indy isn't going to be awarded a team, and Indianapolis will have lost a soccer stadium, a first division women's soccer team, and the coach that has been the most successful coach in the club's history. 

The Henry Street Bridge is moving forward though. 

Only question that I have now will be what that roadway passes. A fenced off abandoned plot of land doesn't seem out of the question, does it?

Eleven Park AKA Titanic Park - Part 2

Just under a month ago, I described the Eleven Park as Titanic Park because it felt like me writing the article about the situation was me as the band continuing to play music on the deck of the Titanic as it slowly sank into the ocean. Continuing to perform as the [Indy Eleven] world crumbles around us. Here I go, playing some more music...

Immediately before I made that statement in that article, I described what I could see happening with the stadium situations. To recap:

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.

Today, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Development Commission met to discuss the Professional Sports Development Area #2 proposed by Mayor Hogsett that has been going through the process of usurping the PSDA #1 that incorporates Eleven Park. To the surprise of nobody following this situation, the Commissions voted 6 to 1 in favor of the PSDA #2. 

PSDA2 kills PSDA1.

Step 1 complete. 

Mayor Hogsett gets to continue to talk about bringing MLS to Indy with a still unnamed billionaire owner group.

Step 2 still in play.

What Indy Eleven, Ersal, and Keystone do about Step 3 is still to be determined. 

Compounding the rough week for Indy and Eleven Park, the City of Indianapolis announced "final plans for archeological work at Greenlawn and Henry Street Bridge construction." It wasn't so much the plan that grabbed my attention in the press release, it was the verbal jabs thrown at Keystone and Indy Eleven that was shocking to me. Below is an excerpt from the press release, with emphasis by me.

The city has entered into a contract with Stantec, an engineering services company, to provide a proactive archaeological approach to the site. 

“As we’ve continued to meet with members of the community, we realized that we were falling short of their expectations. By adding Stantec to the team, we believe we are now more closely aligned with the desires of our residents,” said Indy DPW Director Brandon Herget. “Stantec’s previous work on the Bethel Cemetery project has been referred to as the “gold standard” by community members I’ve spoken with, and provides this project with excavation process led by archaeologists, not a contractor-led project with archaeologist oversight.” 

...

"The new bridge and roadway project, known as the Henry Street Bridge, will be constructed through the old 'Bury Ground' and 'New Bury Ground' sections of the Greenlawn Cemetery, parts of which hold the largest African American burial ground in Indianapolis or Marion County. Although this project will only disturb less than 1.5 acres of the 20-plus acre site, the city estimates that 650 or more graves could be unearthed during the construction of this project. Based on the number of human remains unearthed at the Greenlawn Cemetery site over the last six months, this is a fair assessment of the challenges that lay ahead. The city’s plan of having an archaeology team methodically search for and recover forgotten graves at the site before the construction crews begin work is the best way to ensure all those left behind when the cemetery was abandoned more than a century ago are relocated to a place where they can respectfully rest in peace,” said historian and Community Advisory Group member Leon Bates. “The price tag of the city’s approach to Greenlawn Cemetery is not cheap, but then, is there a price limit for doing the right thing?” 

In a separate press release regarding the final plans for the Henry Street bridge project that runs adjacent to the Eleven Park site (again, emphasis mine):

“Earlier this year, a consortium of community stakeholders, including the city, approached Lilly Endowment to seek funding that would enable the city to preserve the enhanced, architecturally significant plan for the bridge without sacrificing thorough archaeology of the site,” said Mayor Joe Hogsett. “We are grateful for Lilly Endowment’s support, which is specifically and exclusively for the enhanced design of the Henry Street Bridge.”  

I mean, I continue to wonder what Ersal did to the Mayor, because Mayor Hogsett continues to make life more and more difficult for Ersal and Indy Eleven.

Today's confirmation from the Commission on PSDA #2 now clarifies some of what the club is going to need to do moving forward.

Ersal and the rest of the Owner's group need to figure out a new way to fund their stadium, while also waiting to see if the Mayor's MLS bid ultimately kills the team. That's a difficult situation to be, but I'm sure that Ersal's team is considering the scenarios for either situation. As I stated in my previous article, at this point, Ersal/Owner's group/Keystone/Indy Eleven are going to have to privately fund their stadium if (when) the MLS bid isn't accepted. At that point, they will also probably need to operate it themselves too instead of it being part of the Capital Improvements Board portfolio like Lucas Oil Stadium, Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Victory Field, and the Convention Center.

Building on the Greenlawn site is looking further and further like an option for Keystone without substantial effort and delay. The Eleven Park social accounts keep reiterating, "We are ready to build." I can almost guarantee that isn't the case. I assume at this point that the design team wasn't complete by the time the demolition finished, partially because they were waiting on City construction permits to determine if there was anything that needed to be adjusted from those permit reviews. The Mayor's office has stated in the public meetings that the permits have never been issued, so the design team, and by extension the design itself, is in some form of limbo. Likely, the design team has been put on hold. How far the design has progressed is an unknown to me, but I seriously doubt that it is anywhere close to being "ready to build" unless you're talking about the loosest version of that phrase. I mean, I'm "ready to retire," but the ~15-20 years that I have until I reach that stage is still a long way from happening. 

While the Mayor has been less than ideal in this situation and people associated with the adjacent Henry Street bridge project aren't against throwing jabs, I don't believe Keystone/Indy Eleven are telling the truth either.

Here I sit continuing to play the music, but the iceberg has seemingly succeeded in sealing the fate of Eleven Park. 

Details of the public meeting that was held for the archeology of the Henry Street bridge project can be found here (https://wridinfrastructure.com/june-2024-update/).

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.

A resolution for a second stadium location

Tonight, I read through Resolution #2024-E-021  (that was approved with a 7-1 vote) from the Metropolitan Development Commission (MDC) that creates a second professional sports development area, seemingly in competition with the one we all expected was being created for Eleven Park. This resolution and step from the MDC is consistent with what Mayor Hogsett indicated he had begun doing when he made the MLS bid announcement last week. The resolution was approved without public comment, sending a bunch of Indy Eleven supporters home early. The supporters were there to offer their opinion on this new professional sports development area versus the one that was believed to have begun when Indy Eleven and Keystone began demolition on the Diamond Chain site for Eleven Park. The Commission voted, and then moved on with their regularly scheduled meeting agenda items, which included a good discussion about the horrible athletic facilities for Crispus Attucks High School for those that stuck around.

The resolution has a bunch of legal language so it's not all the easiest read, but this quick post (insomnia is good for something I guess) is a summary of some of what I think are interesting pieces of the resolution: 

• It looks like the Mayor is trying to take full advantage of the non-contiguous language from the original law. Properties are scattered throughout downtown. I found the property owners of every single property listed and seemingly all of them are existing businesses or City-owned properties. Many of them are parking lots, including a bunch of lots located south of Lucas Oil Stadium.
• Notable City-owned or adjacent properties include the old City Hall and its parking lots, the City Market, the Marion County Jail. 
• Other notable (one will be discussed in more detail later and so isn't listed here) properties include the Stutz Building, the Gold Building, Shapiro's, Emmis Entertainment, 1 North Pennsylvania, and a few Eli Lilly parking lots.
• I'm not sure how well the use of existing properties meets the language of the law that allows for the professional sports development area. I reread the language from the law (insomnia is rough, ya'll), and Section 5.(b)(3) states, "the project...will protect or increase state and local tax bases and tax revenues." Utilizing a bunch of existing properties doesn't really "increase" the bases or revenues. The stadium should though. Maybe that's enough.

There were two addresses that were listed separately from the rest of the properties. Interesting about those were that they just happen to be addresses for the Circle City Mall that was recently acquired by Hendricks Commercial Properties. Bottlework, which is also a Hendricks Commercial Properties property was also listed with the larger list of properties. It really makes me wonder how much more Hendricks may be involved in this process, MLS bid, etc. I can't imagine their part of the MLS bid application unless the MLS ownership group reached out to them as their developer in lieu of Keystone. 

The rest of the language seemed pretty consistent with the law language. It did say that if Tax Area #1 is used, then Tax Area #2 is terminated, and if Tax Area #2 is used, then Tax Area #1 is terminated. This clearly pushes Keystone's property out if the Mayor's area gets used. 

This is just my opinion, but it seems like Mayor Hogsett is trying to expedite the process by using existing properties as part of the "development," which could also coincide with a cheaper stadium. So instead of trying to find financing for a $250M stadium plus another +$750M for the development pieces, the entire thing gets simplified to just funding for just a stadium, maybe in the $100M to $150M range, which makes everything get done easier and faster. If that opinion has any merit, why he seemingly isn't discussing that with Keystone is unknown to me. Or maybe those conversations have taken place and Ersal and Keystone have not been receptive. Maybe Ersal's consistent appearance that he wants to remain the majority owner and do things his way is playing into the Mayor's actions since there is a time crunch on the law. Maybe Ersal is his own worst enemy right now.

Maybe my gut feeling that the Mayor didn't look like he was happy about last week's announcement, because he knew how it would be perceived, was accurate. Maybe he's trying to find some kind of loophole in the law by using the existing properties to provide a lifeline to Ersal/Keystone/Indy Eleven and not a noose. It's a weird way of going about it, but until we hear more from everybody, it feels like we're getting two sides of the story, when we all know there are three; his, his, and the truth.

Again, I really don't know, but the singled out appearance of Hendricks Commercial Properties, who have experience with developing a stadium, really caught my attention, and now has my brain going in overdrive, which is why I'm writing this as 2:00 AM.

Links for you to do your own reading:

Meeting Minutes
Declaratory Resolution

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 as 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.