INDIANAPOLIS — Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett has been in Columbus, Ohio, this week, talking up Indy’s chances to host Major League Soccer’s next expansion franchise.
Columbus is the site of the MLS All-Star Game and where Commissioner Don Garber and the league’s other operators/investors have gathered.
"I can't speak for any of the owners we talked to, but my sense is that they are aware of Indianapolis's interest, and they know we have a compelling story to tell,” said Hogsett, “as the mayor of a city that prides itself on hosting first-class big events of all size and shapes, not just sporting events, although that does seem to be our niche..."
It was just a few years ago that St. Louis was knocking on the MLS door, wanting entrance into the premier North American league for the World’s Game.
Professor Patrick Rishe, Director of Sports Business Programs at Washington University-St. Louis, had a front-row seat to watch the campaign that eventually brought MLS to town.
”Certainly the fact that St. Louis had an ownership group that was willing to build a stadium in downtown and had local fan and corporate support, this all was very impressive and made it very easy ultimately for Commissioner Garber to welcome St. Louis into Major League Soccer,” said Rishe. ” It's been a huge part of the social fabric of the St. Louis communities and to finally bring Major League Soccer to St. Louis it probably meant more to our community than perhaps it would to other communities that are looking to bring MLS in. And since St. Louis has had MLS in two short years, you have seen an outreach of the team to various parts of the community.”
The St. Louis bid was bankrolled by the Taylor family, owners of Enterprise Holdings, when it became apparent that voters would not support public funds to construct a soccer stadium downtown.
”There is an opportunity, and you’re seeing more and more ownership is seeing this as a new opportunity, of mixed real estate development where they can generate revenue year-round,” said Rishe. “I think in St. Louis it’s a little bit more challenging because downtown St. Louis certainly is not as attractive as downtown Indianapolis so I think that the Indy owners, if they were to do this, I think they’ll have much greater success.”
Mayor Hogsett and his staff have portrayed Indianapolis as a forerunner to secure an MLS franchise and supplant the Indy 11 team of the USL.
Currently, there are 29 MLS teams with a San Diego club to begin play next year.
Hogsett believes there is room for two more teams, one in the west, the other in the east, and on this side of the Mississippi River, Indianapolis’ main competitors would seem to be Tampa, which is still debating construction of a major league baseball stadium after 20 years, and Detroit, which has yet to identify a location for a new stadium.
Indianapolis does not have Major League Baseball, unlike Detroit and Tampa, to compete for summer sports attendance dollars.
Hogsett has plans to decommission the Indy Heliport on the southeast side of downtown, not far from Gainbridge Fieldhouse, and the City-County Council has approved a taxing district to raise the revenues to finance the construction of a stadium and surrounding development.
”Commissioner Garber is gonna want to know what’s the fan support,” said Rishe. “He’s gonna look at the data from the USL attendance. He’s going to want to know what the corporate support is going to be. Will there be corporate dollars to back this team in a mid-size market that already has dollars behind the Colts and the Pacers and to a lesser extent the Fever?”
Eli Lilly was the title sponsor of the recent U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials as Lucas Oil Stadium and Nike has plastered the side of the JW Marriott overlooking downtown with a giant poster of Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark.
”I also want to have details about what is the stadium plan. There has to be a new stadium that ideally is a soccer-specific stadium and ideally is close to downtown.”
Rishe said, at this stage, Indianapolis is answering all the commissioner’s questions.
”One of the things that Garber probably already sees from just looking at the map is where Indianapolis is based in addition to the basics of having a strong ownership group, fan and corporate support as well as a new stadium, they are geographically positioned in a very attractive area because you can generate these rivalries with nearby markets in Chicago and St. Louis and Nashville and Cincinnati and Columbus.
“So from that perspective, Indianapolis could really be an epicenter.”
When state lawmakers begin considering Indianapolis’ proposed special taxing district next month, Hogsett said the identities of the operator/investor group behind the Indy bid would be known.
The Simon family, owners of Pacers Sports & Entertainment and headquartered at Gainbridge, would be an ideal fit for the MLS mandate that proven local sports operators be part of any investor group.
Rishe agreed.
”I think Major League Soccer and Don Garber have to be excited that the Simon family would be involved in this project because they’ve proven themselves as professional sports owners because the Simon family has had a history of giving back to the community and being community oriented and this is something that Garber can look at and say, ‘Well, look, we see that the Taylor family in St. Louis, they’re a minority owner of the St. Louis Blues, they’ve been community-focused, these are obviously positive attributes that can only help Indianapolis’ case for MLS inclusion.”
The price of MLS admission continues to climb.
In 2019, the Taylor family paid a $200 million franchise fee in 2022 on their way to spending $1 billion to begin play.
Mayor Hogsett has estimated the operators of the Indianapolis franchise may pay $500 million to join the league and another $250 million to outfit a team and contribute $20 million to stadium construction.
”We’ve seen sports franchise values explode across all sports and a lot of this has to do with the media rights deal,” said Rishe, referring to the league’s current $2.5 billion TV and streaming agreement. “It’s a little too early to tell just how successful the Apple TV deal has been but the idea is that if soccer continues to grow in terms of its prominence among fans and corporations in this country, which I believe it will, and the 2026 World Cup could play a huge role in further elevating that, then slowly but surely in time this does become a more valuable property and worthwhile investment.”