Mayor Joe Hogsett on April 25 announced that the city plans to file an application for a Major League Soccer expansion club for Indianapolis.
In a news conference, Hogsett said he traveled April 22 to New York City to make his pitch to MLS Commissioner Don Garber.
“As a result of that conversation,” Hogsett said, “I am today informing Indianapolis that, as mayor, I will be leading an effort to file an MLS application and pursue an MLS club.”
City officials said an ownership group is forming that includes a group of investors led by “an experienced and well-respected sports executive” who has held leadership roles with the professional soccer league. They declined to name the parties involved.
The announcement came just hours after Indianapolis-based Keystone Group — the developer behind Eleven Park soccer stadium — accused the city of trying to “walk away” from its deal with the city. The news was first reported by the Indianapolis Business Journal.
Hogsett said he submitted an application to the Metropolitan Development Commission for a new Professional Sports Development Area that would offer an alternative site for a professional soccer stadium. That would be located at 335 E. Pearl St., near the city’s heliport and downtown transit center.
The proposal would create a mechanism for a taxpayer-financed soccer stadium in downtown Indianapolis. In the coming weeks, the mayor will seek the approval of that framework by the Metropolitan Development Commission and the City-County Council.
“I am well aware that this new venture presents no guarantee,” Hogsett said, “but every great achievement in our city’s history has begun where opportunity was met with action.”
Keystone, led by owner Ersal Ozdemir, plans a $1.5-billion mixed-use development that was set to include an Indy Eleven soccer stadium at the former Diamond Chain site along the White River. In December, the City-County Council voted 23-1 to create a professional sports development area that would partially pay for the 20,000-seat stadium. Hogsett then attended a groundbreaking for Eleven Park in May.
The mayor’s announcement, though, puts the future of the project in doubt.
“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,” Keystone said in a statement earlier April 25.
The Eleven Park development also is expected to include more than 600 apartments, 205,000 square feet of office space, 197,000 square feet of retail space and restaurants, hotels, public plazas, green space and parking.
The project has been the subject of controversy because it is located on land that was formerly Greenlawn Cemetery, the burial place of some of Indianapolis’ first Black residents.
When asked whether the city was backtracking on the agreement, a city official said that while there were negotiations with Ozdemir for a soccer stadium at Eleven Park, a deal was never inked.
They said the decision to find an alternative site for a stadium came after concerns that revenues from the Eleven Park project would not be able to cover the cost of a stadium.
A city official said the stadium would only be built if Indy landed an expansion team.
Hogsett’s announcement came 11 years to the day that the Indy Eleven crest was unveiled on Monument Circle.
The news caught Indy Eleven fans by surprise.
David Ziemba, president of Brickyard Battalion, the official supporter group of Indy Eleven, said his organization hopes to have a “frank and honest conversation” with the mayor’s office about the future of the team.
“The mayor stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the ownership group as well as us at the groundbreaking of Eleven Park,” Ziemba said, “and we’re very concerned about those promises being broken and what this will mean for support of the club that has been here.”
Peter Blanchard covers local government. Reach him at 317-605-4836 or peter.blanchard@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on X @peterlblanchard.