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The founder of the Indy Eleven soccer team is hopeful that adding a billionaire to the franchise’s ownership ranks will bolster his case for Major League Soccer—and get plans for a $1.5 billion stadium district back on track.
Fort Wayne businessman Chuck Surack, who made $1.5 billion by selling a roughly 75% stake in his company Sweetwater Sound in 2021, was announced Wednesday as a co-owner and a financier for the team.
His addition comes as majority owner Ersal Ozdemir wages a fight with Mayor Joe Hogsett’s administration about Indianapolis securing an MLS club, which the mayor is looking to do with a separate ownership group. Longtime soccer executive Tom Glick is leading that effort on the city’s behalf.
Surack founded and led Sweetwater for more than three decades before selling a portion of the company to a private equity firm in 2021. He continues to serve as its chairman.
He still has a 25% ownership stake in the company, along with holdings that include a helicopter manufacturing company in Michigan, another $100 million in aviation assets and a $110 million real estate development now under construction in Fort Wayne.
He declined to share details of his planned investment in the Indy Eleven—including whether he intends to become the majority owner of the franchise—but described the dollar figure as “a significant amount” for his family.
Surack also said he is still in conversations with Ozdemir about what role his investment will play in advancing the franchise, including whether it could go toward franchise fees, team operations or components of the Eleven Park project.
For the Eleven Park development alone, the addition of Surack could give the group access to millions more in capital and new lines of credit.
“That’s still being worked out,” he told IBJ. “But what I would say is even bigger is … I think anything good for Indianapolis is good for the state of Indiana, whether that’s Fort Wayne or Evansville or Indianapolis. So I’m just doing everything I can to pour in to good things in our state.”
Surack joins a stable of Indiana businesspeople and families with deep pockets, including the Ricker and Traylor families, Jeff Laborsky of The Heritage Group and Fred Merritt with LFM Investments. The Salin and Hageman families, Don Gottwald and Brian Bauer also own a stake in the Indy Eleven and Eleven Park.
Sources said Surack is now by far the wealthiest of the team’s co-owners—and the first billionaire in those ranks. Keystone has also touted his billionaire status, although his exact net worth remains unknown.
In most cases, the addition of such a wealthy individual might position the United Soccer League Championship team to make the jump to MLS. However, the Hogsett administration itself has opted to forego further negotiations with Keystone Group on Eleven Park and its aspirations for the league in favor of pursuing the procurement of another ownership group to secure a top-tier franchise.
Historically, Ozdemir’s group has been waved off by MLS because he hasn’t been able to substantiate claims he had access to resources that could support a franchise. One source said Ozdemir has long sought to bring the Simon family into the ownership group, including in the early days of the Indy Eleven, but his efforts were spurned.
But the source said Ozdemir is hopeful that the addition of Surack—and continued interest from other wealthy businesspeople—could goad some attention from the league, even as it continues to be enticed by Hogsett.
Earlier this week, Ozdemir told IBJ he is “happy to be a minority owner” in his team if it means securing an MLS franchise, but he added that he needs to have a relationship with the other owners and he would like them to be locally based.
“I’ve always said that this is [about] more than me, that this is about the city and what’s best for the city,” Ozdemir said. “So … if there are people that want to come to us and help us to basically accelerate our MLS [efforts], I’m 100% happy to be a minority owner. I have some amazing, well-known Indiana families as part of this ownership group and we have significant resources, but the MLS franchise [fee] continues to get worse every year.”
In the early days of Major League Soccer, a franchise cost about $7.5 million, but by 2012, the figure jumped to $40 million. In San Diego, officials paid a franchise fee of $500 million for an MLS expansion team set to begin play in 2025.
And operating an MLS team can cost millions of dollars a year. In 2022, the maximum operating revenue for an MLS team was $8 million.
The minimum annual salary for an MLS player is about $71,000, while the minimum player salary for the next-highest league, USL Championship, is $27,000. The Indy Eleven soccer team plays in the USL Championship league.
Jeff Berding, co-CEO of MLS team FC Cincinnati, said comparing the owners of USL Championship league teams with owners of MLS teams is “largely a difference between millionaires and billionaires.”
FC Cincinnati, which is majority owned by American Financial Group CEO Carl Lindner III, started as a USL team but moved up to MLS in 2019.
For his part, Surack said he “would love to move the needle” on the city’s interest in the Indy Eleven by joining as a co-owner, but said he wasn’t sure if the mayor would be willing to change his mind.
A city source affirmed as much, telling IBJ that because negotiations on Eleven Park ended in March and the city is pursuing a different path for MLS, Wednesday’s news changed nothing about the prospect of the Hogsett administration returning to the table with Indy Eleven and Ozdemir.
Even so, Surack said he would still like to see development continue on the Eleven Park site rather than the alternative site that has been put forth by the city, which would include the demolition of the Indianapolis Downtown Heliport. Surack has been opposed to plans to decommission the property in recent years, even buying an adjacent parcel in hopes of thwarting the effort.
“Maybe there’s something I don’t understand, but tell me why this new site that [Hogsett] picked would be a better one,” Surack said. “He also hasn’t come out and said who [the new] investors are. I think I think it’s a little disingenuous on both levels.”
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How many times will IBJ regurgitate this drama?
Because it’s massively impactful for the future of downtown Indy
The billionaires should bring the NHL here instead
+1
+1
Canada can keep hockey and soccer has been the sport of the future since 1977. I love going to the Indians games. Not sure if baseball is still the national pastime but it’s still mine.
Hogsett should focus his efforts, or lack thereof, on fixing the destruction of downtown, which started with the pandemic, followed by a homeless crisis and continuous drug use and gun violence. Oh, and the fact that he doesn’t want to police to actually do their jobs. Businesses are gone, doors and window are closed shut with lumber. This, along with all of the streets in Marion county looking like swiss cheese and weeds and trash everywhere……instead, Hogsett is focused on soccer? Unreal.
You sound like you’ve never been Downtown. For the love of God, shut off the TV, your phone, and your computer & go for a walk. You’ll be happier for it.
Robert H., same response I constantly see “turn off the tv, must be fox news, sounds like you have never been downtown”. Sounds like you have a very limited and narrow interaction with downtown. Kelly F. is accurate, I see it 3-5 times per week while throughout the downtown area. It is absolutely a decline from what it used to be.
I feel certain that Hogsett is trying desperately to bring something of positive note to his legacy as mayor. He has to be looking at his predecessors and all that they did for the city from a sports perspective, for example, Lugar and construction of Market Square Arena and Pacers move to NBA; Hudnut construction of Hoosier Dome, Colts move to Indy, Pan Am games, and downtown high-rise construction boom in late 80s; Goldsmith and construction of Conseco Fieldhouse; Bart Peterson and construction of Lucas Oil stadium; and Ballard and Super Bowl.
2 ‘most likely’ options in my estimation:
1.) No soccer stadium is ever built. Which I’m totally cool with. The Eleven is a USL team – they don’t need a $300M stadium. If they want a new stadium so badly, have them pay half the costs to rebuild Carrol Stadium in such a way that is mutually beneficial for IUI & The Eleven.
2.) The City does land an MLS team & builds on the Heliport site. Ersal becomes part of the MLS team ownership group. Surak moves The Eleven to Fort Wayne, where they’re currently building a stadium that’s likely too big for their USL2 team.
Surack isn’t the only guy with Fort Wayne ties who has entered the Eleven’s ownership fray.
Ersal need not ever own a major league team in any capacity.
My question is why did it take all this for the city and other people with money to want to finally get involved? Ozedmir has been trying unsuccessful for a few years to lure a MLS team to Indy. So why didn’t the city or billonairs like Surack come to the rescue before now? On hand it’s good to see so many are interested in the growth and success of the city but then there’s always a right and wrong way to handle things. Its obvious that business leaders, politicians, people with BIG pockets are choosing whatever side they’re on.
That’s the real question, isn’t it? There is something going on behind the scenes that no local media outlet has yet uncovered. It’s like a puzzle with some of the pieces missing. IBJ has done a good job of covering this story from a 15,000-foot perspective, but until someone finds out what’s really going on and reports it, all we have is speculation.
Blaming the Mayor for the decline of downtown is like blaming the Pacers losses all on the officiating. Kelly and the other critics of the Mayor should stop playing politics and be part of the solution. The Mayor to my knowledge did not cause the pandemic, or the Floyd riots or the homeless issue in our city. We had homeless under Ballard and Goldsmith so its not a Red or Blue issue. People are not working downtown in the same numbers as before so yes that will impact the success of businesses in the core. That is not a Hogsett outcome. So sick of politics driving a wedge so wide we cant work together to solve problems…UGH!!!