Westfield leaders keeping eye on Indy Eleven situation
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Westfield leaders negotiating a 40-year, $300 million deal to manage Grand Park Sports Campus are monitoring how Indianapolis’ push for a Major League Soccer franchise could affect the Indy Eleven as the soccer team makes plans for growth in the Hamilton County city.
After a search that lasted nearly two years, Westfield in December selected Grand Park Sports & Entertainment—a partnership of Indianapolis-based Keystone Group, Indy Sports & Entertainment, Indy Eleven and Westfield-based Bullpen Ventures—to take over the 400-acre Grand Park through a private-public partnership.
Keystone Group, Indy Sports & Entertainment and Indy Eleven are each led by real estate developer Ersal Ozdemir. Bullpen Ventures operates Bullpen Tournaments, which organizes baseball and softball tournaments at Grand Park.
On April 25, Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett said he planned to work with an unidentified potential ownership group to land an MLS franchise that could play at a site near the Indianapolis Downtown Heliport property on the east side of downtown.
The city’s endeavor potentially puts in doubt Indy Eleven’s future and Keystone’s plan for the $1.5 billion Eleven Park stadium and mixed-use district at the former Diamond Chain factory site on the southwest side of downtown Indianapolis.
Westfield Mayor Scott Willis said he was surprised by Hogsett’s announcement and that he thought it “kind of came out of nowhere.”
“I’m not going to lie,” Willis said. “It sent shockwaves through Westfield because we’re close to an agreement with [Grand Park Sports & Entertainment], and obviously, Indy Eleven is a big part of [Grand Park Sports & Entertainment] in that partnership.”
Willis said city leaders will continue to track Indy Eleven’s situation in Indianapolis and be “very careful on every decision we make in Westfield to ensure we protect the park and our residents from any risks that could come from that.”
Grand Park Sports Campus opened in 2014. It has 31 soccer fields, 26 baseball diamonds, two administration buildings, seven concession stands and the 378,000-square-foot multi-use Grand Park Event Center. The sports campus has been the training camp home for the Indianapolis Colts since 2018.
Indy Eleven’s men’s United Soccer League team practices at Grand Park, and the women’s Indy Eleven USL W League team uses Grand Park Events Center as its home field for games. The club hosts many of its youth soccer programs at Grand Park.
Indy Eleven also has plans to construct a club headquarters at Grand Park.
“The events [in Indianapolis] have absolutely no impact on our plans for the Grand Park Sports Campus and future growth there,” Indy Eleven Director of Communications Lindsey Olsen said in an email.
Despite Indy Eleven’s presence at Grand Park, Willis said the club still represents a small piece of the of the year-round operations at the sports campus, which last year attracted 3.8 million visits to the park, 1.2 million visitors and 211,578 athletes, according to the city.
“We love Indy Eleven, and we hope that they’re there 30 years from now, but it doesn’t change the trajectory of the park, the operations of the park [and] the revenue that’s created from the park,” he said.
The Westfield Redevelopment Commission released a request for proposals in March 2022 seeking a new owner or operator of the sports campus and events center.
The city announced in September 2022 that seven proposals were under consideration. At that time, the city was trying to determine if it would sell Grand Park or operate it through a public-private partnership.
The city initially considered selling Grand Park. In its request for proposals, Westfield valued Grand Park at just less than $204 million. In March 2023, Westfield announced the city would not sell the sports campus.
Westfield would retain ownership of Grand Park under the potential deal with Grand Park Sports & Entertainment. The city and Grand Park Sports & Entertainment signed a memorandum of understanding for the group to manage and develop the sports campus for 40 years.
Under the agreement, Keystone Group would develop Grand Park Village, a mixed-use entertainment development with restaurants, hotels, a food hall, offices and open public space.
Once negotiations on the deal are complete, the Westfield City Council and the Westfield Redevelopment Commission will review the agreement, which could take two months or longer. The City Council will need to approve the deal for it go to into effect.
There is a shorter timeline for Indianapolis to determine the direction of soccer in the capital city.
A map for a new professional sports development area, or PSDA, has already received preliminary approval from the city’s Metropolitan Development Commission. But Hogsett’s administration must also get the go-ahead from the City-County Council–and a second MDC approval–by June 30, when the clock expires on a state statute that allows the district to be created and submitted to the state budget committee.
Willis said the June 30 deadline in Indianapolis will give Westfield a better idea of what to expect as Grand Park negotiations continue.
“I think that as that plays out, I think our pitch will become clearer,” he said.