Hogsett: City to pursue Major League Soccer franchise
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Mayor Joe Hogsett said Thursday that Indianapolis will pursue a Major League Soccer team—an announcement that comes a few days after he says he visited New York City to talk with MLS officials.
The city plans to work with an undisclosed ownership group to develop a stadium either at the Indianapolis Downtown Heliport property or at the former Diamond Chain manufacturing site, although the city doesn’t own that site. It’s owned by Indianapolis-based Keystone Group, which had been working with the city to build a stadium for the Indy Eleven professional soccer team.
Hogsett said he had a “productive meeting” with MLS Commissioner Don Garber on Monday.
“Every great achievement in our city’s history has began where opportunity was met with action,” Hogsett said at Thursday’s announcement. “Today we enter our pursuit of the world’s game”
While Hogsett said the city could not yet share details about the ownership group, he said the project would be contingent upon the city and the group securing an MLS franchise, with hopes of submitting a formal bid to the league by the end of this year.
MLS is the highest level of men’s professional soccer in North America, with 29 teams in the United States and Canada. The Indy Eleven franchise plays in the second-tier USL Championship league, which has 24 teams in the U.S.
“It was exciting to hear Mayor Hogsett’s vision for a new soccer-specific stadium in Indianapolis,” MLS said in a written statement Thursday.
Hogsett said the potential MLS club ownership group includes “a group of investors led by an experienced and well-respected sports executive, who has held leadership roles in MLS and global soccer.”
News of the city’s move to forego its relationship with the Keystone Group—whose founder Ersal Ozdemir also owns the Indy Eleven soccer team—comes after the development company told IBJ earlier Thursday that the city had been quietly marketing itself for potential MLS suitors after walking away from a deal on its proposed $1.5 billion Eleven Park stadium district.
Details of the new ownership group are expected to emerge in the coming weeks, city officials said, although it is not expected to include Ozdemir.
The Indianapolis Colts told IBJ that owner Jim Irsay is not involved in the ownership group. When asked if the Simon family was involved in the group, the Indiana Pacers did not answer directly, instead saying the organization had “always been supportive of initiatives to make our city a more vibrant place to live.”
A source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told IBJ that longtime soccer executive Tom Glick is among those involved in the project. The source characterized Glick’s role as that of a “broker” rather than being one of the major investors in the proposed franchise, adding that the city had been in talks with the longtime soccer and sports executive since January to potentially orchestrate a run at MLS.
Glick previously was president Tepper Sports & Entertainment, which owns MLS club Charlotte FC and the NFL’s Carolina Panthers. He most recently worked for Chelsea FC in the United Kingdom. Prior to his time at Tepper, Glick was president of New York City FC and chief commercial officer of Manchester City.
Sports outlet The Athletic separately reported on Glick’s involvement in the city’s efforts.
The city’s move would effectively quash the 11-year-old Indy Eleven’s hopes of going after an MLS designation of its own, something Ozdemir has long said he wanted, as well as his hopes of developing the stadium district that broke ground last May.
City officials said Thursday that negotiations with Keystone faltered after they determined there was a “substantial gap”—they declined to share a specific figure—in tax revenue that would be generated by the proposed district.
According to a source familiar with the situation, the city told Keystone this week about its pursuit of an alternative route and another ownership group, but had not been in regular contact with the company about its tax incentives request since January.
The stadium, which secured a funding mechanism through Indiana Senate Bill 7 in 2019, is required to receive at least 20% private developer support. Up to 80% is permitted to come from funds generated within a professional sports development area, or PSDA, a city-drawn directive that captures various tax revenue streams from specified commercial properties within a one-mile radius of the would-be stadium site. The City-County Council approved the PSDA map for the Eleven Park project in December.
A soccer stadium theoretically remains on the table for the site, as the city said it is one of two options being offered to the new ownership group. The group could also consider the heliport site—with a stadium built on an existing parking lot west of the heliport structure, at 355 E. Pearl St.
In remarks, Hogsett called the new PSDA proposal an “additional option” to the original district at the former Diamond Chain site owned by Keystone. That option would likely incorporate portions of the heliport property, along with several neighboring parking lots, including a large lot directly east of the heliport operated by Denison.
In a lengthy statement, Indianapolis Airport Authority officials told IBJ it is still working to decommission the heliport—a process that began in December 2020—but it has a formal agreement with the city’s Department of Metropolitan Development to eventually redevelop the heliport site in a manner that “will promote physical revitalization of the site and financial reinvestment into the downtown area.”
As part of the PSDA process, the DMD on Wednesday submitted a new map to the Metropolitan Development Commission that will be considered by the commission next Wednesday at 1 p.m. in the City-County Building Public Assembly Room.
That map, which will be made public Friday, could potentially capture several nearby areas prime for redevelopment and city projects—a feature that city officials said make it a viable option.
If the proposal is approved by the eight-member board, it will move on to the Indianapolis City-County Council, before returning to the MDC for a final certification. Under the 2019 legislation that created the PSDA’s framework, the city must have those legislative approvals by June 30.
Hogsett administration officials will work over that period with the ownership group to determine which site to submit to the state budget committee. The state law only allows for one PSDA for the future soccer stadium, and requires a feasibility study to be conducted on that property for consideration by the State Budget Committee.
The city’s Capital Improvement Board, which has been working on a study tied to the Eleven Park proposal, said earlier Thursday that the analysis has not been completed. The CIB has been working with Chicago-based Hunden Partners to complete the study, but it has been put on hold until a site is selected by the new ownership group.
The city said it will be able to submit it proposal to the MLS after securing support and approval from the state, and it plans to complete that application by the end of this year.
If Indianapolis is considered for an MLS expansion club, it’s likely the new ownership group will have to pay a hefty sum to get the ball rolling and could face an uphill battle in the Midwest. Over the last several years, St. Louis, Nashville and Cincinnati have been approved for expansion, as have Charlotte and Miami.
In San Diego, officials paid a franchise fee of $500 million for an MLS expansion team set to begin play in 2025.
City officials said if Indianapolis fails in its expansion bid, development on a stadium, which does not have a projected development cost, will not proceed.