INDIANAPOLIS — Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett said the city is no longer working with the developer of Eleven Park to build a soccer stadium for the Indy Eleven at the site on the southwest corner of downtown.
But the mayor's new proposal to build a different stadium for a Major League Soccer expansion team received initial approval Wednesday, May 1.
The Metropolitan Development Commission considered a new tax district plan for a professional soccer stadium in Indy.
"The proposal by Mayor Hogsett is to construct a publicly-owned, publicly-constructed, soccer-specific stadium in support of a potential application to Major League Soccer to grant Indianapolis an expansion club,” city attorney Scott Chinn told the commission.
The original tax area was approved by the City-County Council in December for the Eleven Park mixed-use development with a 20,000-seat soccer stadium built by Keystone Group, whose owner, Ersal Ozdemir, also owns the Indy Eleven United Soccer League team.
But on Wednesday, Hogsett said he no longer supports the Eleven Park stadium plan.
“The negotiations regarding Indy Eleven, the Park stadium, have been terminated because they just don't make fiscal sense, financial sense,” Hogsett said. “And I think in their quieter moments, Keystone Group would admit that they need more support from public entities in order to get their private investment done. And I'm just not willing to put the taxpayers in Marion County at risk in that regard."
The new tax district would fund a soccer-specific stadium on the southeast corner of downtown on Pearl Street. The original tax district for the Eleven Park site is still on the table. But only one proposal can be submitted to the state budget committee. The deadline is June 30 to be considered under the current state authorization legislation.
Soccer supporters came to the commission meeting Wednesday wearing T-shirts that read, “Build Eleven Park.” Most are members of the Brickyard Battalion soccer supporter group.
"Anxiety would be a great word for it – frustration,” Brickyard Battalion President David Ziemba said. “The members have reached out. There's a lot of anger directed at the mayor's office right now. Because again, they don't understand, and I am in the position of trying to explain to them what's going on. I've been trying to figure out from the mayor's office what's going on, and he won't contact me."
The commission passed the mayor's new stadium proposal to the City-County Council. The resolution is expected to be introduced to the council on May 13.
City-County Councilor Kristen Jones stood with soccer supporters after the commission meeting. The Eleven Park project is in her district.
“They want the original PSDA (professional sports development area), an allocation area, and honor the commitment that we've already passed,” Jones said. “They want Eleven Park to be built as planned.”
But the mayor's plan has changed.