Indy Eleven's future questionable as city pursues MLS franchise
Without the Indy Eleven, Indianapolis is pursuing a Major League Soccer franchise. The news casts doubt on the city’s second professional soccer club’s long-term viability.
The city is taking a huge risk to lure MLS, but an undisclosed investor group supports the idea. The Indianapolis Business Journal says this group would pay the projected $500 million expansion fee.
Doing so means the city will not pursue a deal with Keystone Development Group and the Indy Eleven. The 20,000-seat soccer stadium is part of Eleven Park, a mixed-use complex along the White River that Keystone is developing for $1.5 billion. Construction has already begun.
Indianapolis Mayor presses forward with Major League Soccer aspiration
Keystone has been hard at work developing an 18-acre complex on the western edge of downtown Indianapolis. A multi-use stadium with 20,000 seats was supposed to be the complex’s focal point; it would have been home to the Indy Eleven USL Championship soccer club.
Earlier versions of this story said that Eleven Park will include 600+ residences, a concert hall, shops, offices, parks, and a public parking garage. Victory Field and Lucas Oil Stadium, two of the city’s most prominent athletic facilities, were to be located in the complex.
But on Wednesday, the city submitted a resolution to the Metropolitan Development Commission. That’s in order to establish a soccer stadium in the planned professional sports development area on the downtown southeast side.
Next to the downtown transit hub and running parallel to the planned Blue Line of the city’s bus rapid transit system, the stadium would be on the southern side of Washington Street.
According to Hogsett, he spoke with the Major League Soccer commissioner about the possibility of relocating a club to Indianapolis. The name of the ownership group that was in discussions with the city is not available to the public.
“Today, we enter our pursuit of the world’s game. Our city knows how to navigate the business of sports. Every great achievement in our city’s history has begun where opportunity was met with action,” he said.
What did Keystone say?
The Indianapolis mayor, Joe Hogsett, is reportedly withdrawing from what the Keystone Group described as “years of good-faith negotiations,” they said in a press statement.
“Unfortunately, after recent bipartisan approvals from the City-County Council, Mayor Joe Hogsett’s administration is preparing to walk away from the state and city leaders who entrusted him with this project and the neighborhoods who are depending on the progress Eleven Park represents,” the release read.
Keystone reaffirmed its commitment to revitalizing a “long-neglected” area of Indianapolis with a “transformational project” and a “vibrant community space” in the statement.
Also, the organization insisted that no additional taxes would be levied on Indianapolis citizens due to the developer-guaranteed partnership. That’s even though the project’s budget had doubled from $500 million to $1 billion.
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