The Indy Eleven’s average home attendance this year was tops in the struggling North American Soccer League and better than all but three of the 30 teams in a competing league. Team officials see that as a positive factor in their bid to join Major League Soccer.
The North American Soccer League—the professional soccer league that includes the Indy Eleven—has lost its sanctioning as a Division 2 league for the 2018 season, the NASL announced Tuesday.
Gone is the jersey’s subtle yet unmistakable checkered design background—a nod to the Indianapolis 500 and the team’s support squad, the Brickyard Battalion—which was popular with the team’s fan base.
The soccer club made an eleventh-hour pitch for state aid in building a stadium during this year’s General Assembly, with most of the presentations made privately and quietly. The team’s request was not acted upon.
The window on Ersal Ozdemir’s dream of bringing a Major League Soccer franchise to Indianapolis might be closing—fast.
Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber said Tuesday that having stadium financing in place is a condition for selection.
The team says it has put together a plan to raise the estimated $320 million needed to cover the expected $150 million Major League Soccer franchise fee, a new 20,000-seat downtown stadium and start-up costs for the team.
Jumping from the North American Soccer League—the second-tier professional soccer league in the United States—to the top league would require the Indy Eleven to pay a franchise expansion fee of at least $150 million and would involve construction of a downtown stadium.
The North American Soccer League will retain its status as a Division II league for its upcoming season, but on a provisional level as U.S. soccer officials set requirements for the troubled league to maintain that status.
The U.S. Soccer Federation’s board of directors met in New York City on Tuesday and decided to postpone a decision about the North American Soccer League, where the Eleven have played since their first season in 2014.
The North America Soccer League ended its latest season in mid-November with 12 teams, but is in danger of losing half of them.
Some season ticket holders told team officials they wanted bigger discounts over single-game prices. Meanwhile, the team continues to discuss options for a new stadium with state lawmakers.
Indy Eleven owner Ersal Ozdemir remains bullish on the North American Soccer League despite the defection of two of its teams to the rival United Soccer League this week. The team is putting 2017 season tickets on sale Friday.
The Indy Eleven are succeeding on the field this year, but struggling to maintain their spot as North American Soccer League attendance leader. And serious concerns about the NASL’s future have emerged, casting an even bigger shadow over the local team.
Efforts by local developer Ersal Ozdemir to secure tens of millions of dollars in public money to build a downtown soccer stadium for his North American Soccer League team appear to have hit a brick wall in this year’s General Assembly, and perhaps permanently, said one key lawmaker.
Former Indianapolis Motor Speedway President Jeff Belskus is the new president of the Indy Eleven professional soccer team. Peter Wilt is leaving to start a rival NASL team in Chicago.
Herb Simon, who earned his spot on the Forbes 400 list as part of Simon Property Group, is buying an expansion franchise in the United Soccer League, a professional league with a player-development agreement with Major League Soccer.
Indy Eleven General Manager Peter Wilt isn’t too worried about the team’s 6.3 percent attendance drop this year, because of gains in sponsorship, food and beverage sales, and soccer-camp revenue.
WISH-TV Channel 8—and its sister station WNDY-TV—continue to add sports programming to their offerings and in the process may become the go-to stations for Chicago area transplants.
Juergen Sommer, a former U.S. National Team goalkeeper, Indiana University All-American and graduate of Culver Military Academy, has been with the team since its inception in 2013.
