This would be a big step toward getting the stadium built, as the requirement that Indy acquire a place in MLS before the stadium could be built was in essence a poison pill. The bill still needs final approval, though, and that's hardly a given.
MLS announced that they're expanding to 30 with Sacramento and St. Louis in position to be 28 and 29. Hmmm...
How many competitor cities do we have at this point? If we can get the stadium deal done, I have to think Indy would have a pretty good shot. On the other hand, if the league is determined to put a team in Austin (having failed to move the Crew), we're done.
Austin is already official, and they're factored into the same timeframe as Nashville & Miami. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_FC So, it's really who gets to be #30 right now. Our competition would be San Antonio, Raleigh/Durham (North Carolina FC) and maybe Phoenix.
Thanks for clarifying. I'll be really annoyed if it's San Antonio. Texas, big as it is, does not need four teams.
I don't think MLS moves into San Antonio but Texas in comparison, Australia has 2 million fewer people than Texas, and has the entire A-league. Texas is roughly the same size as France or Spain. Texas is twice the size of Germany. I think MLS has realized over the last decade that a part of soccer that has been lost in the US due to our massive size is the regional rivalry. The Midwest now has Columbus, Cincy, Chicago (likely St. Louis) and now you want them to consider putting a fifth city in the Midwest in the form of Indy, which I don't see happening. I do think they add a true western conference team, like Las Vegas or Phoenix.
There will be a vote over the stadium bill today. Sessions starts at 1:30. Let’s hope we get some good news.
Now we need to negotiate with the city/CIB to get a location. Shouldn’t be as difficult as getting it past the senate though.
To be sure, we’re not done. And the location is going to be crucially important. But this is a big, big step.
I will bet every penny that I will ever have that if a major city (by this I mean you already have a big 4 team) has a stadium and chums wanting to write a check for >$200M MLS will not turn you down. Its like a chick that goes to a frat party wanting to get laid chances are 1 for 1.
That's how you convince people something's okay; if it's a continuation of something that's been around for years, they accept it. If you introduce something they must learn to accept, then all hell breaks loose. Humans are weird.
He already signed off. The current issue now is where the stadium will be placed in the city. And then there's the matter of if it'll even lead to an MLS promotion. At the very least, the LIPAFC will feature new venues with this and the one in the Butchertown district in Louisville.
Are there not many places to put it? How's ownership, are they rich enough? Kinda sounds like a good deal so far.
There really aren't that many places to put it, at least not if the stadium is going to be placed downtown. There were more options when the stadium idea was first floated four years ago. But a number of those locations have since seen other development. The principal options in what might be called downtown are a large parking lot to the southwest of Lucas Oil Stadium (large enough to accommodate the stadium but probably not the associated residential/retail/office/park space that's part of the Eleven Park proposal) and the old GM stamping plant just on the other side of the White River from downtown (a site that is large enough for all of the development and that is crying out for development, but that isn't quite downtown). Broad Ripple is sometimes mentioned as a possibility, but it would present all kinds of logistical problems (traffic and parking would be a nightmare). And some other sites that are occasionally mentioned, like the now largely abandoned Lafayette Square Mall, are simply non-starters--the vast bulk of the fanbase simply wouldn't want to go there. Ersal Ozdemir is rich, no question, and he brought in some minority investors last winter, but as far as we know none of them is rich to a truly absurd level (a level that would allow them to fund the stadium development in full and pay an MLS expansion fee, for example). Of course the stadium itself is to be largely publicly funded and operated.
I recently did a post showing the Eleven Park (with or without development) in various locations around the city. The parking lot southwest of LOS is what I call the Sand Street location. https://the-game-beckons.blogspot.com/2019/08/eleven-park-locations.html
Great post, and nice work. One additional thing to take into account in trying to place the stadium is the desirability of a north-south orientation. We want to avoid the bad old days of Carroll Stadium, when the keeper at the east end of the stadium was often looking directly into a blinding sun.
I was trying to get them into the sites in the way that made the most physical sense, but the sun issue definitely needs to be considered. I think some of the issue can be resolved by the height of the stadium and with sun screens, all of which were not possible nor available with Carroll. I've tried to get comments from the team on the stadium progress, but without any success.
Twin Aire is ideally my preferred landing spot given that it could be the spark the near East side needed that the 2012 Super Bowl initiative wanted to see come to fruition. The only potential sacrifice may be that Laundry & Tan Connection. Plus, additional improvements to the Pheasant Run Trail could be incorporated. Lafayette Square is too far away from downtown to suffice the Eleven's initiatives, yet given the sorry state of the mall where it is now a withered husk that has too many cell phone accessories & used jewelry stores and only one anchor in Shoppers World, would anyone raise a fuss about its destruction besides the boobs who will inevitably go "it's got history"? I took several photographs last week inside and it's your standard "dead mall"; dilapidated infrastructure, lack of variety in stores, and failed gimmicks (remember the Great American Pizza Company disaster that resulted in that dead child and them closing immediately after, yet they never bothered removing the visage of the place?).
Is there any update on the stadium? Like are we basically just waiting for ownership and the city to come to an agreement on a location and then it's happening?
Nothing yet--the team is keeping very quiet on the subject. I think if we're lucky we'll hear something by the end of the year. Viable locations in or adjacent to downtown are hard to come by--a lot harder than was the case when a stadium proposal was first seriously floated in 2015.
Would really hope it's sooner rather than later. Idk how realistic it is anymore, but the MLS window is closing soon, and no stadium spells disaster for that. Idk what happens if MLS says they're done expanding and we're not in it. Yes, we would still have a formidable stadium for our attendance, but I would think that would be a really large stadium for a D2 team. I suppose we would just keep going as planned and pray for pro-rel to be introduced?