I believe the Indy Eleven owners, minus the new one, are rich, but not rich enough. Huge difference between sustaining a USL team and an MLS team. Plus, we don't know who the potential new owners are. I don't think it's quite Mohamed Mansour type money, but it could be. I think there's more to it than the grave site. Articles have stated that the "deal" the Keystone group had been working on might have been a bit shady or illegal. Something like getting deals done through private caucuses or something violating "Open Door" policy. Seems like Eleven Park is a bad deal for the city and tax payers.
They are rich, but not stinking rich. The fact Ersal needed outside support (and a guy with ulterior motives, no less) to back Eleven Park at the 11th hour is only further proof as to why the city of Indianapolis backed out of supporting them, and why MLS rejected the team's bids in 2017 and 2019. I don't think you understand the issues of the cemetery. It ain't just "oh, bring in the proper people and move the bodies". A procedure of this magnitude could take YEARS based on the amount of bodies and studying necessary to identify the quantity as well as moving them to proper burial, then cleaning up the site for adequate resumption of construction. As it stands, Eleven Park would be pushed back to 2026... if we're lucky. For MLS right now, they want things to move along smoothly, and for a city, they don't want goofy cost incursions. Also, the city believes there is zero value in the heliport, and it's killing two birds with one stone; they tear down an albatross that nobody uses besides obnoxious people who could just go to the airport anyway to not have to deal with the blight that is downtown that they're so scared of and build something that isn't tied to extraneous content like apartments and hotels when the city is already building... hotels and apartments downtown. I know you are explicitly siding with the Indy Eleven side because you are all "why would they abandon the project that's already in development" and I doubt all of my arguing is going to change your mind or get you to understand but the city recently went through a project called CityWay that went over budget and the owner had to take out additional loans. And I believe the city does not want to go through a similar fiasco where they're forced to eat billions just to make *one* guy happy, when they can build something at a smaller cost and get something faster that actually will likely go through the proper channels.
Originally, the deal was that the city would have to pay upwards of 80% of fees on the $1.5 billion project. But as we know, costs go up, so the project likely would have ballooned to $2 billion, than $2.5 billion. More likely, Keystone was aware of the cemetery, but still went ahead with it, yet threw in all of the extra facilities, knowing that potential construction issues would likely happen that would throw all of the burden on the city of Indianapolis, while absolving Keystone of the problem. And when Hogsett and the council backed out of the deal and went in another route, they got angry, as this robbed them of their meal ticket.
Here's an interesting factoid.. Apparently there are leaks coming out that USL HQ is secretly supporting Indy Eleven to join MLS. The reason for this is that when a USL team joins MLS, NuRock gets 7% of the expansion fee. Since the next expansion fee is roughly $1b, that means NuRock would be looking at around $70m in kickback. They get nothing if the Mayor's bid is the one that wins. Re: Indy/MLS. You’re starting to see USL leadership leaking info in support of Ersal.Remember, it’s just business. USL wants Ersal’s bid to win, so that they get that sweet, sweet ~7% upward mobility fee. The next one could be north of 50M for USL (and NuRock). pic.twitter.com/XqD8FPwKBC— Nipun Chopra, PhD (@NipunChopra7) May 9, 2024
Here you are. I was at work today. http://archive.today/2024.05.10-123...ions?utm_source=ibj&utm_medium=home-headlines
https://fox59.com/video/mls-plan-he...e-between-two-potential-sites-begins/9689420/ They have a sponsor
Tonight, with the introduction of the proposal to create a new soccer-specific stadium site near the downtown heliport, Indianapolis takes the next step in the process by which we can secure a Major League Soccer expansion club for our community.— Mayor Joe Hogsett (@IndyMayorJoe) May 13, 2024
It would seem that the next step is the June 3rd Council meeting. And that the city government is done with Eleven Park regardless of outcome. https://www.wishtv.com/news/politics/city-county-council-begins-mls-tax-district-discussions/
I am grateful for the leadership of President Osili and look forward to continued conversations with City-County Councilors, downtown stakeholders, and our community members as we build an application that sends a clear message to MLS: Indianapolis is a major league city.— Mayor Joe Hogsett (@IndyMayorJoe) May 13, 2024
And we're off ICYMI:“Based on financing, (the Eleven Park project) was for a @USLChampionship stadium, not an @MLS stadium.”Monday night the city of Indianapolis took a crucial step in bringing an MLS team to Indianapolis.#MLS || @wrtv https://t.co/UTsaqx4LWs— Griffin Gonzalez (@grifgonzo) May 14, 2024
A new tax district was proposed to the Indianapolis City-County Council Monday to help fund a downtown soccer stadium and help a secret ownership group woo an MLS expansion team. https://t.co/9M7b7uMZwO— WTHR.com (@WTHRcom) May 14, 2024
I'm getting serious Sacramento Shovel Ready vibes on this..... Plus MLS HQ's less than enthusiastic statement on it, leads me to believe that this is a very long ways off.
??? So you're getting the city approves the Mayors stadium then majority owner, whom we don't know, walks away from the whole thing leaving Indy without MLS vibes?
A lot of talk and noise. They don't yet have an expansion bid (at least details beyond the vagaries the mayor has given). As of right now it's: IF the county, city, and state approve this stadium plan, unknown investors may be ready to help pay to bring a team.
We don't even know who the potential owner is, so it could always happen given how such things cahnge. We also don't know if Indy will end up being the winning bid. They aren't going to be the only city bidding for the spot(s) and it could always go to those cities over Indy.
Right, far from "Shovel Ready". If indeed the city and ownership group come together with a stadium plan, I just don't get Sac vibes with who's involved that we do know of. Depending on who the ownership group is, the "bid" would be a formality. But you're right, a lot of noise at the moment.
Sacramento's issues would be more comparable to if Keystone were the one going for the MLS bid. The Republic;s owner was driving Sacramento's bid and he wanted a billionaire that would give him the money to get a MLS club, but didn't want that billionaire to have a say in how the club was run. As you can imagine, not many billionaires are willing to sink hundreds of millions into a business and not have any say in how it is run.
http://archive.today/2024.05.22-204...y-site-where-eleven-park-planned/73807505007/ The city is interested in buying the property back from Keystone for the purposes of the cemetery, which would kill Eleven Park.
So from the outside looking in, this looks like the city wants to buy the land and help solve a sensitive situation as it pertains to human remains and their historical aspects while at the same time killing Eleven Park, which turned out to be a bad deal for tax payers, and bid for MLS a better way somewhere else. All while the millionaire Keystone group encourages people to stand up for said deal, basically be shills, to continue without plans for the remains and only wishes to develop the Eleven Park site. Does Keystone want BYB to be their hounds? Am I way off here? It certainly is a mess
Everyone is an asshole right now. The city is fighting with a private firm over something they agreed to and have all but closed off communications, while the construction company deliberately chose a site with dubious history and is trying to haphazardly remove bodies while going scorched earth on everything. And Indy Eleven supporters don't want to see their team offed but are likely going to go "new stadium, yay!" than listen to reason.
I thought I read somewhere that what the city had agreed to was a deadline for negotiations. Not necessarily a done deal on the city's part.