News: MLS to Indianapolis

Discussion in 'MLS: Expansion' started by JDogindy, Apr 25, 2024.

  1. antnee7898

    antnee7898 Member

    Oct 19, 2007
    South Houston, TX
    Club:
    Houston Dynamo
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    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.
     
  2. JDogindy

    JDogindy Member

    Nov 20, 2014
    Club:
    Indy Eleven
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    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.
     
  3. JDogindy

    JDogindy Member

    Nov 20, 2014
    Club:
    Indy Eleven
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    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.
     
  4. xbhaskarx

    xbhaskarx Member+

    San Jose Earthquakes
    United States
    Feb 13, 2010
    NorCal
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  5. JDogindy

    JDogindy Member

    Nov 20, 2014
    Club:
    Indy Eleven
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    And now the Simons are getting involved, complicating matters by buying the parking lot.
     
  6. antnee7898

    antnee7898 Member

    Oct 19, 2007
    South Houston, TX
    Club:
    Houston Dynamo
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Complicating how? I can't read the article.
     
  7. Yoshou

    Yoshou Fan of the CCL Champ

    May 12, 2009
    Seattle
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    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.

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  8. JDogindy

    JDogindy Member

    Nov 20, 2014
    Club:
    Indy Eleven
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    antnee7898 repped this.
  9. antnee7898

    antnee7898 Member

    Oct 19, 2007
    South Houston, TX
    Club:
    Houston Dynamo
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  10. antnee7898

    antnee7898 Member

    Oct 19, 2007
    South Houston, TX
    Club:
    Houston Dynamo
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    1790140086308188271 is not a valid tweet id
     
  11. antnee7898

    antnee7898 Member

    Oct 19, 2007
    South Houston, TX
    Club:
    Houston Dynamo
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  12. antnee7898

    antnee7898 Member

    Oct 19, 2007
    South Houston, TX
    Club:
    Houston Dynamo
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    1790140087491080211 is not a valid tweet id
     
  13. antnee7898

    antnee7898 Member

    Oct 19, 2007
    South Houston, TX
    Club:
    Houston Dynamo
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    And we're off

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  14. antnee7898

    antnee7898 Member

    Oct 19, 2007
    South Houston, TX
    Club:
    Houston Dynamo
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    1790247867916980317 is not a valid tweet id
     
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  15. jaykoz3

    jaykoz3 Member+

    Dec 25, 2010
    Conshohocken, PA
    Club:
    Philadelphia Union
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    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.
     
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  16. antnee7898

    antnee7898 Member

    Oct 19, 2007
    South Houston, TX
    Club:
    Houston Dynamo
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    ???
    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?
     
  17. jaykoz3

    jaykoz3 Member+

    Dec 25, 2010
    Conshohocken, PA
    Club:
    Philadelphia Union
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    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.
     
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  18. Yoshou

    Yoshou Fan of the CCL Champ

    May 12, 2009
    Seattle
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    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.
     
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  19. antnee7898

    antnee7898 Member

    Oct 19, 2007
    South Houston, TX
    Club:
    Houston Dynamo
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    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.
     
  20. Yoshou

    Yoshou Fan of the CCL Champ

    May 12, 2009
    Seattle
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    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.
     
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  21. JDogindy

    JDogindy Member

    Nov 20, 2014
    Club:
    Indy Eleven
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  22. antnee7898

    antnee7898 Member

    Oct 19, 2007
    South Houston, TX
    Club:
    Houston Dynamo
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    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
     
  23. JDogindy

    JDogindy Member

    Nov 20, 2014
    Club:
    Indy Eleven
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    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.
     
  24. antnee7898

    antnee7898 Member

    Oct 19, 2007
    South Houston, TX
    Club:
    Houston Dynamo
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    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.
     

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