Behind the scenes, Indianapolis is scrambling to add an MLS expansion club

INDIANAPOLIS – Information is coming fast and can be confusing as Indianapolis pursues a Major League Soccer club. The hard part was not understanding Mayor Joe Hogsett’s hostile takeover, however necessary, that put the city and not the Indy Eleven in charge of this pursuit. This was hard to fathom, in real time, with angry Indy Eleven fans and its angry owner, and the City and County Council taking sides — and lining up against the city — until Hogsett made it clear:

There is only one way forward here – ours. Get on board or get out of the way.

The Local Council-Council got out of the way. In hindsight, this was the easy choice. In hindsight, that was the only choice.

This was a sledgehammer compared to the delicate work that lies ahead, the delicate work that happened where these things happen: behind closed doors, where details matter, where a heliport is not a heliport – that matters – and where the “middlemen” are making “inquiries” about “historic buildings” standing in the way of progress, the fine-tuning of downtown Indianapolis’ next big development is happening as we speak.

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Information comes in fast, as I said, and it can be confusing. The city was invited to the July 24 MLS All-Star Game in Columbus, Ohio, where MLS said the expansion ends for now with a 2025 club in… San Diego? huh? Did something go wrong?

Is that damn helipad thing?

No, nothing went wrong. Don’t worry about the helipad, or the helipad, or the distinction between the two. Don’t worry—not at all—about the Indianapolis Airport Authority, 13 miles away, and what it has to do with the process. Don’t worry, not yet, about private property near the city’s planned location for the MLS stadium it hopes to build. Don’t worry about words like “historic building” or even, in this newspaper’s headlines, “red cards”.

Title in question:

Property owners could ‘red card’ downtown soccer stadium at center of MLS franchise bid

Clever title and no mistake – these owners could be a problem – but it’s not necessarily prescient either. This whole thing is overwhelming, isn’t it? So many details, unforeseen, obstacles. Seems like a lot of work. Could someone please wake us up when this whole thing is over?

Sure. Just don’t get too comfortable. It won’t be long now.

MLS no rush; Indy is ready, wait

What happened last week in Ohio looked strange, from this local perspective: Indianapolis wants an MLS club, and our mayor was invited to the MLS All-Star Game by commissioner Don Garber, who used that setting to remind them everyone that MLS is expanding to, um, San Diego in 2025. And then Garber said, in a few words: San Diego will be the end of expansion for a while.

Well, no, these were his exact words:

“It will be the end of expansion for a period of time,” he said.

I was there and one of our Columbus stories said that Garber “threw a bucket of cold water on MLS expansion talks in Indianapolis,” which I thought was about right. But our stories from Columbus said much more than that, a series of fabulous pieces reported by Brian Haenchen that quoted Garber, Hogsett, three different MLS owners and even the most recognizable voice in American soccer, ESPN analyst and former MLS MVP Taylor Twellman, now lead analyst for Apple TV.

The most important piece of reporting from Ohio, information that was directly supported this week by Hogsett’s chief of staff, Dan Parker, was this:

The process from here to there, from Indianapolis wanting an MLS club to Indianapolis getting an MLS club, takes time. How Hogsett knocked Indy Eleven off the rails, moving from the dream — but doomed — of Eleven owner Ersal Ozdemir to the old production company Diamond Chain? That seemed to happen quickly, because work was done then where most work is done now: behind closed doors. One minute we think Indy Eleven is chasing an MLS team and its fans are excited for having been loyal to a relatively modest franchise about to rise and become something huge, and the next minute we find out Indy Eleven are out , the city of Indianapolis is in, and Mayor Joe just did what the?

This was sudden for us because it happened while we were sleeping. Now we’re wide awake and energized and ready for our next move, and MLS invited our mayor to the All-Star Game and here he is!

Well, no. Not quite, not exactly. But what happened last week in Columbus was this:

“Confirmation,” says Parker, who accompanied Hogsett to Columbus and was in those rooms with Garber and other MLS owners, hearing what they had to say about our city’s potential MLS future. “It was a confirmation of what (Garber) shared with us in April when the mayor was in New York. The commissioner said it publicly (last week) for the first time: great sports town, great location for soccer, doing everything right to get a downtown stadium.

“He said Indianapolis is doing everything right, but it’s a process and there’s more to do. This is the case.”

The work will be carried out behind closed doors. While we sleep. This is fine.

What needs to happen next for Indianapolis to get its MLS club?

There are many things we don’t know, mainly: who will own it?

Speculation has centered around the Simon family, either Herb or his son Steve, owning the Pacers and working with the city to turn the area around Gainbridge Fieldhouse into a mini-destination of its own. The proposed MLS soccer stadium would be a short walk — about two minutes — from Gainbridge Fieldhouse. The Simon family has owned soccer teams before, and Brian Haenchen reported last week that one of Columbus’ MLS owners, San Diego FC’s Tom Penn, “has spoken to someone who is involved in Indianapolis’ search for an MLS team. (Penn) declined to identify the individual but said they were picking his mind about “expanding in that particular market.”

Who is Tom Penn? A former NBA executive who worked with Pacers president Kevin Pritchard in Portland. Do you think Penn is talking to someone in the Simon family? It could be, but we don’t know. To hear Dan Parker tell it, neither does the city of Indianapolis. Hogsett leaves that to Tom Glick, a former Chelsea executive with extensive experience in building ownership groups, who is doing it here for our proposed MLS club.

“Conversations with the MLS commissioner gave us confidence that Mr. Glick knows what he’s doing in terms of forming an ownership group,” says Parker. “(Their) warning was (prospective owners) that they will not be published until they know we have done everything we can to deliver this piece of stadium. This was a leap of faith for us, doing all the things we need to do to allow Mr. Glick to form an ownership group. We are confident that it will happen.”

The idea that the mayor invested so much time and political capital into getting an MLS club without knowing the identity of the club’s owner sounds far-fetched, even fantastical, but who knows, you know? The next billion dollar business we put together will be my first.

These people live in different worlds than you and me, a world where the downtown helipad is not just a helipad, but a domino. And with the Federal Aviation Authority in the process of decommissioning the heliport because the Indianapolis Airport Authority (IAA) is fed up with expensive overhead for a single client, IU Health, knocking down dominoes that could lead to building a heliport for much less expensive. somewhere nearby.

IAA is giving IU Health a good deal for an 11-acre helipad at the Indianapolis Regional Airport in Greenfield. A heliport is a facility – think of a fire station, for fire trucks – while a heliport it is simply a temporary parking spot for a helicopter. And that matters here, because the city needs more space for its MLS stadium than the Downtown heliport (which measures 60 feet by 60 feet), and one of the property owners near the heliport, Surack Enterprises, is owned by the Fort Wayne Business Chuck Surack. .

Surack owns a helicopter business.

Get Surack a helipad, then get serious with other nearby property owners – so far they’ve only received “inquiries” from “brokers” about their coveted properties – and Indianapolis’ MLS search is in business . As for those “historic” buildings in the way of progress, well, remember the Indiana Oxygen Company? It was built in 1930 at 435 S. Delaware St., earning a place in 1987 on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Indiana Oxygen Company building was moved to 351 S. East St. in 1995. Lilly needed that place in Delaware. Lilly wrote a check.

That’s how these things happen.

What needs to happen next for Indianapolis to get its MLS club? The city spent last week putting the finishing touches on its proposed taxing district, known as the Professional Sports Development Area, and presented it to the state budget committee before the close of business Friday. The Budget Committee will set a date on the agenda to discuss and hopefully approve the PSDA. By then we will know the name of the mystery owner.

The city hopes to complete its official application to MLS for an expansion club by the end of 2024. Indy FC, or whatever it’s called, could play as soon as the 2027 season. In a new stadium. Downtown. Where the current occupants are a heliport and some historic buildings.

All this happens in a frenzy, behind closed doors, while we sleep. One day we may wake up to the news that real estate controls have been lifted and the site has been secured and the state has approved the fiscal district that will take Indianapolis to new heights. Our downtown sports economy is already second to none, and adding a soccer-specific stadium for an MLS club like they have in Columbus, Nashville, and Cincinnati, with hotels, restaurants, and shops around it, would only make it better. the place as the most welcoming and welcoming. sports city in the world.

It’s a lot, but it happens. Relax. It won’t be long now.

Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar or at www.facebook.com/greggdoyelstar.

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