INDIANAPOLIS — Thursday marks two weeks since Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett surprised a lot of people with his bid for a Major League Soccer team in Indianapolis.
That announcement put the future of a new stadium for the Indy Eleven in jeopardy.
Throughout this, the mayor has stayed relatively quiet, but on Thursday, he spoke with 13News about his decision and what will come next.
Hogsett said he believes his plan is still the city's best opportunity to land an MLS team.
"This was a difficult decision I had to make, but it was not a decision I didn't make with the direct input of the commissioner himself," Hogsett said.
Last month, Hogsett flew to New York City to meet with MLS commissioner Don Garber.
The closed-door conversation obviously gave the mayor enough confidence to end his longstanding deal with Eleven Park and cut ties with Indy Eleven and Keystone Group owner Ersal Ozdemir.
"The chances of adding a Major League Soccer club to Indianapolis is an opportunity that we should not pass up. Nothing guarantees that it will come here, but I think in my estimation, we have a better than even shot at landing it," Hogsett said. "No commitments were made. No guarantees were offered, but I do think that they are genuinely excited about Indianapolis as a prospective club, and we are keeping our fingers crossed and putting our best foot forward."
In order to bring MLS to Indianapolis, the city needs to build a different soccer stadium at a new site.
To do that, the mayor needs approval and funding from the City-County Council in the form of a tax district. However, the original tax area was approved by the City-County Council in December for Eleven Park.
City leaders have until June 30 to pick which one they want to move forward with and submit it to the State Budget Committee.
On Wednesday, soccer executive Tom Glick met with the Indy Democratic Caucus about the MLS bid. Glick is reportedly the leader behind the rival investor group.
"We continue to reach out to both Democrats and Republicans alike so that they can hear what I experienced when I went to New York to sit down with the commissioner," Hogsett said.
The proposal for a new tax district that would help fund the mayor's stadium plans is expected to be introduced at Monday's City-County Council meeting. Right now, the proposal doesn't have a sponsor. The councilor who would normally sponsor it, Kristin Jones, said she's opposed to it.
When asked about this Thursday, the mayor said he is "cautiously optimistic."
"Look, there's been a lot of back and forth. There's been a lot of rhetoric over the last couple of weeks. The truth is, there's really only one issue that the council and the people of Indianapolis have to ask themselves: 'Will Indianapolis be ennobled by bringing a third major league franchise to our city?' The answer to that is yes or no," Hogsett said.
On Thursday, Indy Eleven announced Fort Wayne billionaire Chuck Surack is joining as a co-owner of Indy Eleven and investor in Eleven Park.