The saga has taken several turns with fresh revelations about what’s underneath the ground set aside for the stadium complex that developer Keystone Group wants to build and who owns the land the city has identified for another site that Mayor Joe Hogsett’s administration has championed.
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Eric Holcomb told IBJ while he is hopeful Indianapolis will secure a Major League Soccer club—an effort Joe Hogsett announced during a public address on April 25—it will have to do so without having him play facilitator.
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Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett’s administration could pursue a plan to turn the proposed Indy Eleven stadium property into a memorial park to honor its history as an early cemetery grounds rather than let it be developed, the mayor’s spokeswoman confirmed Friday.
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City officials say the decision to walk away from the Eleven Park development was in taxpayers’ best interest. But the Keystone Group says the move was driven by misplaced ambitions and a lack of interest in discussing specifics of the project’s finances.
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FIFA announced Wednesday that Westfield’s Grand Park Sports Campus was selected as one of 24 potential locations to serve as a team base camp training site during the early rounds of the 48-country soccer tournament that will be played in the United States, Mexico and Canada in June and July 2026.
Fishers-based tech startup Spokenote, which signed a first-of-its-kind sponsorship deal with the Indiana Pacers several months ago, said that deal has led to additional opportunities with other sports teams, including the Indy Eleven.
The City-County Council on Monday evening approved a major piece of the Hogsett administration’s plan to lure a Major League Soccer team to Indianapolis, advancing a proposal for a new professional sports development area intended to fund a soccer-first stadium.
Although the possibility of a Major League Soccer stadium in Indianapolis is still up in the air, city officials are considering design possibilities for their preferred site, on the east side of downtown.
Mayor Joe Hogsett’s plan to create an additional professional sports development area in downtown Indianapolis was introduced to the City-County Council on Monday with two additional council sponsors—and questions over the committee assignment for the proposal.
Fort Wayne businessman Chuck Surack could give the Indy Eleven access to millions more in capital and new lines of credit, but the mayor’s office is expected to continue its own strategy for landing a Major League Soccer team.
Westfield Mayor Scott Willis said Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett’s decision to pursue a Major League Soccer franchise without involvement from the Indy Eleven “sent shockwaves through Westfield.”
The members are set to meet behind closed doors Wednesday with the man behind Mayor Joe Hogsett’s effort to score a Major League Soccer franchise.
Surack’s addition is set to reinforce the financial muscle of a group of investors that already includes the Ricker and Traylor families, Jeff Laborsky of The Heritage Group and Fred Merritt with LFM Investments.
The April 25 announcement that the city is pursuing a Major League Soccer franchise followed more than three months of secret phone calls, emails and other interactions between city leaders, MLS officials and a longtime soccer executive named Tom Glick.
A proposal to develop a Major League Soccer stadium on the east side of downtown Indianapolis is facing some early resistance from the owner of a historic property in the heart of the proposed development area.
MLS is the highest level of men’s professional soccer in North America, with 29 teams in the United States and Canada. The league’s 30th team, which reportedly came at the cost of an $500 million franchise fee, will begin play next year in San Diego.
The city is forgoing its relationship with the Indy Eleven to work with an undisclosed ownership group to develop a stadium at one of two potential sites.
City officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Keystone’s statement. But the Mayor’s Office announced that at 5:30 p.m., Hogsett would make a “significant announcement about the future of sports in Indianapolis.”
The council also approved tens of millions of dollars in bonds to support the redevelopment of Old City Hall, a demolition of the former Jail I building and renovation of portions of the City-County Building. Also passed Monday was a plan to create a study commission on the use of artificial intelligence.
Lowry, 38, became the fourth non-interim coach for the Indy Eleven in November 2021 and compiled a regular-season record of 25-28-15 over two seasons.
The city’s findings dash the hopes of a historical preservation group that the old law would require a full excavation of the city’s first public cemetery site before work could begin on a bridge over the White River and a proposed Indy Eleven soccer stadium.
As approved by the Metropolitan and Economic Development Committee, the district would collect various taxes to cover a portion of the cost for the stadium at the proposed Eleven Park development. The City-County Council now must weigh in.
The Metropolitan Development Commission’s approval, which came by a 8-0 vote, sends the proposal to the City-County Council, where it will be introduced Nov. 13.
The taxing district, known as a professional sports development area, or PSDA, would allow for the collection of various taxes to cover a portion of the cost for the 20,000-seat stadium.
