Mayor Joe Hogsett’s plan to help finance a Major League Soccer stadium in downtown Indianapolis received its final local government approval.
The Metropolitan Development Commission voted 6-1 to approve the mayor’s proposed taxing district — called a Professional Sports Development Area — during a meeting June 26.
It’s been two months since Hogsett unveiled his plan to build an MLS stadium near the downtown heliport in an effort to attract an expansion franchise. While the vote doesn’t commit the city to building a stadium, officials have said they hope this shows MLS a willingness to get it done if the league chooses Indianapolis.
“You can’t be a world-class sports city if you don’t bring the world’s game to your city,” the mayor’s chief of staff, Dan Parker, told commissioners.
The taxing district that would help fund a stadium designates about 100 parcels of land around the heliport that are either slated for development or have development potential. The district would collect certain taxes — including local and state income — for the public portion of building the stadium.
The map has changed slightly since it was introduced, with 10 parcels being taken out. Department of Metropolitan Development Director Megan Vukusich said those parcels overlapped with another existing tax district.
Vukusich said the 10 parcels aren’t among those slated for development.
How we got here
In making his MLS pitch, Hogsett is sidestepping the $1.5-billion Eleven Park development at the former Diamond Chain factory site.
At the time, Hogsett appeared to stand alone in pursuing MLS through an alternative stadium plan. And his turn away from Eleven Park sparked a public fight with some Indy Eleven faithful and Keystone Group, which is led by Ersal Ozdemir, who also owns the Eleven.
But Hogsett’s taxing district survived four votes to get here — and none were especially close.
The City-County Council passed the district 16-8 — with one abstention — even as some councilors expressed frustration with the mayor’s strategy.
The proposal’s biggest critic on the council, Democrat Kristin Jones, told commissioners June 26 that she wouldn’t ask them to vote no.
“I accept reality,” she said, “and I understand what’s gonna happen today.”
Jones criticized the city for not being transparent, including how it plans to acquire land within the taxing district from owners who don’t want to sell.
But the Hogsett administration has been clear about one thing: If MLS is the goal, this is the only way forward.
That’s because even though the City-County Council and Metropolitan Development Commission already approved a taxing district for a 20,000-seat stadium at Eleven Park, Parker has said the city won’t give that map to the state for final approval.
And in passing Hogsett’s plan, the commission rescinded the original taxing district, according to the resolution.
Meanwhile, the city has offered to purchase the Eleven Park site from Keystone at market value.
While the back-and-forth initially revolved around the future of soccer in Indianapolis, much of the conversation has shifted to the fact that the Eleven Park site is home to four historic cemeteries that have become known collectively as Greenlawn.
The Indiana Department of Natural Resources would require a “controlled and systematic excavation” ahead of any future development at the roughly 20-acre site, Mirror Indy revealed.
And city officials, after initially committing to archeological monitoring of the 1.4 acres it acquired to build the Henry Street bridge, announced June 24 it instead will fully excavate its portion of the site.
What’s next?
Now that it’s received all necessary local approvals, the taxing district next goes to the state.
According to the state law that enabled the taxing district, the city needed local approvals by June 30. The city will put together a feasibility study to submit to the State Budget Committee, which is a group of bipartisan lawmakers and state officials.
The committee has 60 days to make a recommendation to the State Budget Agency, which is the governor’s fiscal policy adviser.
The end of the local process also means an ownership group is likely closer to revealing itself.
To this point, the only name publicly associated with a potential MLS ownership group is sports executive Tom Glick, who helped bring an MLS team to Charlotte.
On the same day as the Metropolitan Development Commission vote, Hogsett was asked by IndyStar journalists whether the ownership group might contain Herb Simon, who owns the Indiana Pacers and Indiana Fever. Hogsett did not deny that, IndyStar reported.
Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath attorney Scott Chinn, who has been representing the city, said the group would need to reveal itself before the city submits a feasibility study to the state.
Mirror Indy reporter Tyler Fenwick covers economics. Contact him at 317-766-1406 or tyler.fenwick@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on X @ty_fenwick.
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