Hogsett ‘optimistic’ about MLS expansion bid efforts after informal meetings

Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett speaks with media on Tuesday, July 23, 2024. (IBJ photo/Mickey Shuey)

COLUMBUS, Ohio—Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett said he is “optimistic” about the city’s efforts to secure interest for a Major League Soccer expansion club after spending time with several team investors and operators, as well as multiple league executives.

Hogsett, who arrived in Columbus on Tuesday for events related to Wednesday night’s MLS All-Star Game, attended a reception hosted by MLS Commissioner Don Garber on Tuesday evening. Hogsett was joined by his chief deputy mayor, Dan Parker, and Tom Glick, a longtime soccer executive-turned-sports consultant who is leading the city’s efforts to court a MLS team investment group.

“We’ve had a wonderful day—we’ve attended receptions and talked to MLS owners about Indianapolis’ interest in bringing a club” to the city, Hogsett said. “I’ve been pleased with the response that we’ve received. I can’t speak on behalf of anybody but myself, but from my perspective, the reception has been very warm, it’s been very positive. And I think it’s just another step forward for the city of Indianapolis to do everything within its power to secure an MLS club.”

Hogsett, Parker and Glick were among only a few hundred people who secured an invitation to the two-hour reception, giving them an opportunity to mingle with some of the league’s biggest investors.

The mayor said Garber greeted the Indianapolis contingent upon its arrival, but quickly moved his attention back to the investor-operators and other league personnel on-hand.

“There were a lot of people to talk to, and obviously, [he’s] the commissioner of Major League Soccer and all of [his] bosses are in the room, (so) he was focused appropriately,” Hogsett said. “But he welcomed us and made us feel very much a part of the celebration that MLS is enjoying here in Columbus this week.”

Glick also introduced Hogsett and Parker to several investors of teams across the league throughout the party, something the mayor said he was grateful he had an opportunity to experience.

“Tom has been an enormous help in this, because of his experience, particularly in the area of MLS and growing clubs in new cities,” Hogsett said. “I think you’d have to ask him who he’s talked to, but … Tom was at the reception tonight and was kind enough to introduce Dan Parker and me to many of the owners … of MLS clubs around the country and that has been extraordinarily beneficial. I’m grateful to Tom for doing that.”

Hogsett’s trip to Columbus will conclude Wednesday morning, as he is set to return to Indiana to greet Vice President Kamala Harris at Indianapolis International Airport ahead of her speech at the Zeta Phi Beta sorority biennial convention. Harris this week became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee after President Joe Biden announced he was ending his candidacy.

The third-term mayor had initially hoped to return to Columbus in time for the 8 p.m. All-Star Game between stars from Major League Soccer and Mexico’s top-flight league, Liga MX. Parker and Glick are each expected to participate in several meetings on Wednesday in his place.

MLS’s Garber is likely to be prompted to address potential expansion—including to Indianapolis—during his midseason news conference on Wednesday. Indianapolis officials are not expected to play a direct role in the event.

Hogsett said he believes it would be “premature” for a commitment, formal or otherwise, to come from the league as part of that event.

“We all have to do our due diligence, and we still have the state that needs to be able to weigh into whatever application [with MLS] we would ultimately file,” he said. ” It would be our hope that we might be able to file an application perhaps as early as the end of this year. … But we are moving along in the process.”

The administration in the coming weeks is expected to receive a completed feasibility study and fiscal analysis for the Indianapolis Downtown Heliport site from Chicago-based Hunden Partners, which will be submitted to the Indiana Finance Authority, State Budget Committee and State Budget Agency for consideration as part of a request to finalize a new professional sports development area, or PSDA, taxing district.

Glick has already met with multiple league and MLS team officials, sources told IBJ. The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of discussions about Major League Soccer expansion.

One source told IBJ that Major League Soccer is aware of Indianapolis’ interest in securing a club and having a stadium funding plan in place will well-position the city to make a run at a team.

But the source also said it could be a tough path forward for Indianapolis because the league hadn’t planned to consider expansion until after North America hosts the World Cup in 2026, noting that MLS club entry fees could grow anywhere from 25% to 50% higher from their latest price. San Diego paid $500 million for its club, which begins play next year.

The source also said that because Indianapolis doesn’t yet have any publicly identifiable investors, Hogsett and the city’s contingent might face headwinds in certain conversations about joining the league’s ranks.

Hogsett said he doesn’t know what Major League Soccer’s timeline for expansion is, but he is hopeful to speed up the process as much as possible.

“All we can focus on is making sure that we’re doing what we need to be doing, to put together as competitive a bid for a club as we can, and that’s what we are doing,” he said. “We would like that process to be as accelerated as we can reasonably make it, while at the same time being responsible. My job as mayor is to present to them the most compelling argument as to why Indianapolis should be included in decisions that they may ultimately make about awarding a club, and we’re doing that. MLS will take care of the rest once we’ve submitted an application.”

Speculation continues to swirl about the involvement of the Herb Simon family, which owns the Indiana Pacers and Fever franchises, however Danny Lopez, executive vice president of community and external affairs and corporate communications for the Pacers organization, told IBJ the Simons will not be in Columbus this week.

Jeff Berding, co-CEO of FC Cincinnati, told IBJ he is “unaware that there’s an elite investor—a billionaire, if you will, who has stepped forward” for Indianapolis. But he said having that, including whether such information is privately shared, will feature in how MLS officials evaluate the legitimacy of the city’s overtures to MLS, both during All-Star week and thereafter.

“At the end of the day, respectfully, the mayor is not going to be the partner,” he said. “But credit to him for saying that this is an important initiative for Indianapolis.”

Berding said the city having the framework for a funding mechanism on a potential stadium is also critical to the viability of the city’s efforts, including in how seriously league officials and team executives take Hogsett’s overtures and efforts to meet with them.

Hogsett has said he expects an local investor group will be revealed “sooner rather than later,” and certainly before the city submits its request to the state government entities for the PSDA’s consideration.

Even so, Berding said Indianapolis’ trip to this year’s All-Star Game seems largely focused on relationship building. He added he doesn’t expect a decision to come this week from the league about whether it will strongly consider a Major League Soccer application from Indianapolis.

“I think it’s a good thing for Indianapolis and a good thing for MLS to know that there’s the political leadership of the city saying [they] would love Indianapolis to be a part of the league in the future,” he said. “I think that’s a real positive and I don’t think it’s a waste at all. It’s a deposit in the relationship, and adds some visibility with the decision makers who ultimately have a say. But it’s certainly not happening this week, and I don’t know that it’s happening anytime soon.”

On Tuesday, Hogsett also said he is open to the possibility of a women’s soccer team being part of conversations with a prospective investor-operator group in Indianapolis, adding that there have been cursory talks to that end.

“There have been conversations about it, but certainly no decisions have been made,” he said. “I think in all fairness, there is a compelling reason why Indianapolis would be well-served by both a professional MLS men’s team and a professional women’s league team. But those are decisions that, frankly, the ownership group would have to make. I’d certainly encourage that both men and women be well represented in soccer” in Indianapolis.