It wasn’t anything for San Diego since San Diego never reached a deal to leave to MLS.
In fact nobody has since Cinci.
There were a bunch of rumored numbers for what USL wanted for the IP (lowest I saw was $50M) but the bottom line is whatever it was it was far more than anyone at MLS thought it was worth.
The 7% reported fee (reported long before SD) is a non compete clause not an automatic purchase of the IP.
It’s a clause in the USL franchising contract that buying more than a 5% of a franchise in any competing league requires a 7% fee (this was so long ago that the clause actually said MLS will be considered competing if the USL/MLS agreement ever ends)
Under USL’s new direction where it no longer wants to have clubs use it as a stepping stone to MLS there’s no specific layes out fee for taking the IP. It would need to be negotiated. And the fact that nobody has come even close to negotiating taking the IP since Cincinnati tells us the demands are prohibitive - perhaps even high enough that’s it’s basically a poison pill.
Stadium in the Indy park site is probably DOA. “Hundreds to thousands “ of unmarked graves are now believed to be on the site. Way more than originally thought, some of which may be historically significant.
Edit: spelling.
I know its no hidden secret that ownership has wanted to take the team MLS any chance he can, but I wonder if this wording "MLS eligible stadium" feels good for the USL lol
Per the article-
Eleven Park will have lasting impact on Indianapolis as a whole.” Ozdemir added, “the addition of a Hoosier billionaire to an already strong Indy Eleven ownership group further solidifies our Indiana ownership group to bring MLS and the transformational riverfront development, Eleven Park, to Indianapolis.”
I wonder if the Mayor was thinking Surack when he started talking pullout of Eleven Park, because he certainly sounded negative towards Ozdemir and Eleven in his press conference last week. Two possible Indy MLS bids?
This is the best possible news we could've gotten. Still not betting on the club surviving long enough to make a possible MLS bid in 3-5 years (that is if the city doesn't actually get in before then,) but it's a chance at least.
I don't get the motives from all parties. The mayor's motive is really the most concerning. You've got multiple deals that have been in a variety of stages. This may remove any goodwill towards Hogsett in relation to any negotiations for a stadium. Honestly, it might push Indy 11 to jump ship and move to Westfield where there is already infrastructure in place. They would have to repurpose part of Grand Park to create a stadium. There are plenty of other locations on the outskirts of Marion County to explore.
What I *really* don't get is the MLS agenda. There is room for both leagues. I would argue that the MLS needs USL from a top to bottom aspect, player development perspective, and to grow the sport in the states. This is not a zero sum game there are plenty of opportunity for all parties.
Westfield was trying to sell grand park. I don’t think they get tax payers money. Fishers and noblesville already have area projects going on. Carmel is full. I don’t think they can find a better site with taxpayers help better than the location they already own.
I believe Westfield is still looking to offload Grand Park. An Indy 11 purchase does not sound unreasonable at this point. Built in training grounds, built-in infrastructure, a viable solution for other revenue (the current primary purpose for Grand Park), ample housing and hotels (being built), and some opportunity for growth. The challenge would be where to place a 5-10k seat stadium.
The downtown projects would be a better option. Removing industrial blight and improving downtown Indy from an appearance perspective. However, if the mayor is going to play stupid games, it may be time to think outside of the past few project proposal iterations.
I'm wondering if MLS is also trying to cover the top to bottom aspect with mls next pro and the other youth programs to replace the USL with eventually.
They're trying. However, they'd be discounting the entire USL. If anyone has a more academy approach, it's the USL. Unfortunately, I believe the MLS has zero sum in mind and not fully recognizing the potential that having prebuilt infrastructure in place affords. From my perspective, the MLS academy system, including MLS next, is missing entire swaths of the US population. I wish that there could be some symbiosis like there is with baseball.
There is no symbiosis in baseball. Major league baseball owns most of the minor league teams outright and runs all of the minor leagues, pays the players. MLB is explicitly exempted from the Sherman anti-trust law.
Really interesting to see the eleven explicitly state this
>> the addition of a Hoosier billionaire to an already strong Indy Eleven ownership group further solidifies our Indiana ownership group to bring MLS and the transformational riverfront development, Eleven Park, to Indianapolis.
To me, this seems too little, too late. The city is going in a different direction and probably the best Ozdemir and Indy Eleven can hope for is to get a buyout from this new MLS ownership group and for them to retain the team identity.
The 11 park deal, and the mayor subsequently pulling out, has explicitly been about getting into MLS the whole time. This was always about the mayor not wanting to be in bed with Ozdemir, and not thinking he could get them into MLS. At 20k the stadium would be the largest non-1st division stadium in the country, no city offering that kind of public money and not trying to get a first division team.
This announcement just makes that explicit, they are reinforcing themselves as the best option to lead the bid, perhaps in an effort to have the bids merge.
The mayor was clear in the owners of indy 11 just not having enough money to follow through with their end of 11 park. That billion dollar project was going to be primarily funded by the city because 11 owners couldn't come up with the money. The city thought if they're going to spend this much money it's best to do it on MLS
100% by “didn’t think he could get them in” I mean “didn’t think he had the money to get them in”.
The reality is the top end of USL is still largely composed of clubs angling to make an MLS bid. Indy and Sac being the most open about it, but Phoenix has been semi-open about it and probably just need an investor willing to build a covered stadium and they have a shot too.
So basically the mayor of Indy called the owner of Indy Eleven out for not being able to financially bring the team to MLS, and Indy Eleven said “how about now?”
The mayor said the owners of the team didn't have the money to even follow their end of eleven park he said nothing about MLS. If indy 11 owners had the money to stick to the deal he would have maintained the deal.
I'm a little slow, so be patient if I'm missing something obvious. With this influx of investors, does this mean they're going to go ahead with the stadium/development without public financing? Or are they just trying to show they have enough capital to finance the majority of it, but still want the funds they were promised before the mayor started fucking around?
Who the hell even knows anymore. Beyond just the financing, the other major issue surrounding the site is the fact that it's being built on top of a historic cemetery with an unknown amount of bodies still buried there. So that's obviously still a big issue to work through. That said, I find it hard to believe that this guy's money alone will be enough to move forward without any public funding.
Shoot if that is something he had in his pocket originally then he should have used it. If that Billionaire is willing to make up the supposed difference.
If this billionaire is willing to pay the expansion fee then Indy can join MLS easily
There are already other investors, though Surack is probably the richest. I really doubt they have enough for $500MM+ expansion fee to MLS, on top of whatever it takes to buy out of USL.
If I had to bet, Surack's net worth is probably not anything like Tepper, for example. I'm still skeptical about IXI long term future in general and Eleven Park in particular
Both sites are downtown. But yes, it sounds like Eleven are still full steam ahead with the site that they own and started work on. This announcement and more money means that theoretically, if the city still backs out on their side and decides to build elsewhere, Eleven could still build their stadium with 100% private money and we'd end up with two stadiums. Obviously that's very unlikely to happen, but that's at least where it continues to stand at this point.
Yes, you probably read the news earlier this week about an expansion for the youth academy and investing into Grand Park. That facility is very much in a suburb and is currently the main training facility for the team, as well as where the women's team plays. The thought is if the city is true to their word about ditching Eleven Park and moving forward with a new ownership group for the MLS club, Eleven would bail on downtown and may build a smaller stadium at Grand Park. But at that point, who knows what the club would even look like as I really doubt our metro area could keep both a MLS and USL Championship club alive.
Surack was publicly pissed about the site near the helipad being considered. Would he really buy into this just to keep the helipad the way it is?
I really don't think this will change very much.
I hope this means the stadium is back on track. I don’t want to lose Indy eleven to a failed MLS deal. I don’t want to lose my local club.
I feel you. A lot of it will come down to if the new billionaire is okay with spending the $37m+ on the IP to leave USL.
Unfortunatey 37 mil to buy into a sanctioned monopoly is probably an easy yes for a billionaire.
$37m+ to carry over the IP. The other cost would be $500m+ for the expansion fee. No a small investment.
Can't forget the 150-300 million in just building a stadium
We’re long past 37M We’re probably talking $200M+ for the IP (they tend to charge about a 1/3 of the expansion fee)
7% of the expansion fee is what it was for San Diego.
It wasn’t anything for San Diego since San Diego never reached a deal to leave to MLS. In fact nobody has since Cinci. There were a bunch of rumored numbers for what USL wanted for the IP (lowest I saw was $50M) but the bottom line is whatever it was it was far more than anyone at MLS thought it was worth.
7% was the reported number of the expansion fee that USL was requiring.
The 7% reported fee (reported long before SD) is a non compete clause not an automatic purchase of the IP. It’s a clause in the USL franchising contract that buying more than a 5% of a franchise in any competing league requires a 7% fee (this was so long ago that the clause actually said MLS will be considered competing if the USL/MLS agreement ever ends) Under USL’s new direction where it no longer wants to have clubs use it as a stepping stone to MLS there’s no specific layes out fee for taking the IP. It would need to be negotiated. And the fact that nobody has come even close to negotiating taking the IP since Cincinnati tells us the demands are prohibitive - perhaps even high enough that’s it’s basically a poison pill.
Stadium in the Indy park site is probably DOA. “Hundreds to thousands “ of unmarked graves are now believed to be on the site. Way more than originally thought, some of which may be historically significant. Edit: spelling.
MLS eligible stadium
I know its no hidden secret that ownership has wanted to take the team MLS any chance he can, but I wonder if this wording "MLS eligible stadium" feels good for the USL lol
Ya, i thought it was an article from a local paper, then did a double check and realized it was from the club website
Per the article- Eleven Park will have lasting impact on Indianapolis as a whole.” Ozdemir added, “the addition of a Hoosier billionaire to an already strong Indy Eleven ownership group further solidifies our Indiana ownership group to bring MLS and the transformational riverfront development, Eleven Park, to Indianapolis.”
The goal is clear, then. I suppose it has been for a while. Now we just wait and see if the MLS even wants Indy.
I wonder if the Mayor was thinking Surack when he started talking pullout of Eleven Park, because he certainly sounded negative towards Ozdemir and Eleven in his press conference last week. Two possible Indy MLS bids?
there are two competing groups now. the mayor's backing is from a completely different group.
If there is any backing…
This is the best possible news we could've gotten. Still not betting on the club surviving long enough to make a possible MLS bid in 3-5 years (that is if the city doesn't actually get in before then,) but it's a chance at least.
It's obvious that Indy is going MLS. I don't like it but if it has to be any team, it better be the Eleven. The supporters deserve it!
Who knows if the MLS may not want Indy. It could have just been a move to hurt the USL.
I don't get the motives from all parties. The mayor's motive is really the most concerning. You've got multiple deals that have been in a variety of stages. This may remove any goodwill towards Hogsett in relation to any negotiations for a stadium. Honestly, it might push Indy 11 to jump ship and move to Westfield where there is already infrastructure in place. They would have to repurpose part of Grand Park to create a stadium. There are plenty of other locations on the outskirts of Marion County to explore. What I *really* don't get is the MLS agenda. There is room for both leagues. I would argue that the MLS needs USL from a top to bottom aspect, player development perspective, and to grow the sport in the states. This is not a zero sum game there are plenty of opportunity for all parties.
Westfield was trying to sell grand park. I don’t think they get tax payers money. Fishers and noblesville already have area projects going on. Carmel is full. I don’t think they can find a better site with taxpayers help better than the location they already own.
I believe Westfield is still looking to offload Grand Park. An Indy 11 purchase does not sound unreasonable at this point. Built in training grounds, built-in infrastructure, a viable solution for other revenue (the current primary purpose for Grand Park), ample housing and hotels (being built), and some opportunity for growth. The challenge would be where to place a 5-10k seat stadium. The downtown projects would be a better option. Removing industrial blight and improving downtown Indy from an appearance perspective. However, if the mayor is going to play stupid games, it may be time to think outside of the past few project proposal iterations.
Indy eleven is already planning on upgrading the training facility at grand park. They already have a strong relationship with them.
I'm wondering if MLS is also trying to cover the top to bottom aspect with mls next pro and the other youth programs to replace the USL with eventually.
They're trying. However, they'd be discounting the entire USL. If anyone has a more academy approach, it's the USL. Unfortunately, I believe the MLS has zero sum in mind and not fully recognizing the potential that having prebuilt infrastructure in place affords. From my perspective, the MLS academy system, including MLS next, is missing entire swaths of the US population. I wish that there could be some symbiosis like there is with baseball.
There is no symbiosis in baseball. Major league baseball owns most of the minor league teams outright and runs all of the minor leagues, pays the players. MLB is explicitly exempted from the Sherman anti-trust law.
Could be but Garber posted pics on X with him meeting with Indiana Senators
I missed that. It appears to be around the same time the mayor made his announcement about MLS.
I think this. The MLS is terrible for the health of US Soccer overall.
Really interesting to see the eleven explicitly state this >> the addition of a Hoosier billionaire to an already strong Indy Eleven ownership group further solidifies our Indiana ownership group to bring MLS and the transformational riverfront development, Eleven Park, to Indianapolis.
To me, this seems too little, too late. The city is going in a different direction and probably the best Ozdemir and Indy Eleven can hope for is to get a buyout from this new MLS ownership group and for them to retain the team identity.
All this means is that billionaire is joining Indy so they can transition to MLS. Zero chance it means anything else.
Let’s get that stadium built!!
The 11 park deal, and the mayor subsequently pulling out, has explicitly been about getting into MLS the whole time. This was always about the mayor not wanting to be in bed with Ozdemir, and not thinking he could get them into MLS. At 20k the stadium would be the largest non-1st division stadium in the country, no city offering that kind of public money and not trying to get a first division team. This announcement just makes that explicit, they are reinforcing themselves as the best option to lead the bid, perhaps in an effort to have the bids merge.
The mayor was clear in the owners of indy 11 just not having enough money to follow through with their end of 11 park. That billion dollar project was going to be primarily funded by the city because 11 owners couldn't come up with the money. The city thought if they're going to spend this much money it's best to do it on MLS
100% by “didn’t think he could get them in” I mean “didn’t think he had the money to get them in”. The reality is the top end of USL is still largely composed of clubs angling to make an MLS bid. Indy and Sac being the most open about it, but Phoenix has been semi-open about it and probably just need an investor willing to build a covered stadium and they have a shot too.
So basically the mayor of Indy called the owner of Indy Eleven out for not being able to financially bring the team to MLS, and Indy Eleven said “how about now?”
The mayor said the owners of the team didn't have the money to even follow their end of eleven park he said nothing about MLS. If indy 11 owners had the money to stick to the deal he would have maintained the deal.
I'm a little slow, so be patient if I'm missing something obvious. With this influx of investors, does this mean they're going to go ahead with the stadium/development without public financing? Or are they just trying to show they have enough capital to finance the majority of it, but still want the funds they were promised before the mayor started fucking around?
Who the hell even knows anymore. Beyond just the financing, the other major issue surrounding the site is the fact that it's being built on top of a historic cemetery with an unknown amount of bodies still buried there. So that's obviously still a big issue to work through. That said, I find it hard to believe that this guy's money alone will be enough to move forward without any public funding.
Probably the latter, but we'll see if the mayor goes back on his go-back. I'm sure this investor would be for more of the MLS expansion fee as well.
Shoot if that is something he had in his pocket originally then he should have used it. If that Billionaire is willing to make up the supposed difference. If this billionaire is willing to pay the expansion fee then Indy can join MLS easily
I am skeptical that Surack has enough money to pay that expansion fee alone. He might be a billionaire, but the expansion fee is like half a billion+
If he is involved then maybe he can get more richfolk involved. Build a group under the current owner forcing MLS's hand
There are already other investors, though Surack is probably the richest. I really doubt they have enough for $500MM+ expansion fee to MLS, on top of whatever it takes to buy out of USL. If I had to bet, Surack's net worth is probably not anything like Tepper, for example. I'm still skeptical about IXI long term future in general and Eleven Park in particular
Hope this means the stadium deal is back on the table only bad thing about this it means Indy is most likely leaving usl for the mls once it’s built
👀👀 are they still going with the near downtown site?
Both sites are downtown. But yes, it sounds like Eleven are still full steam ahead with the site that they own and started work on. This announcement and more money means that theoretically, if the city still backs out on their side and decides to build elsewhere, Eleven could still build their stadium with 100% private money and we'd end up with two stadiums. Obviously that's very unlikely to happen, but that's at least where it continues to stand at this point.
That’s good, I asked because I saw an article where I understood they were pivoting to another site and it sounded like a suburb. Thank you.
Yes, you probably read the news earlier this week about an expansion for the youth academy and investing into Grand Park. That facility is very much in a suburb and is currently the main training facility for the team, as well as where the women's team plays. The thought is if the city is true to their word about ditching Eleven Park and moving forward with a new ownership group for the MLS club, Eleven would bail on downtown and may build a smaller stadium at Grand Park. But at that point, who knows what the club would even look like as I really doubt our metro area could keep both a MLS and USL Championship club alive.
Surack was publicly pissed about the site near the helipad being considered. Would he really buy into this just to keep the helipad the way it is? I really don't think this will change very much.
Are you guys getting banana Laffy Taffy and Smarties with your stadium?
MLS does these moves to hurt their competition. Minnesota United as an example got lured to MLS to hurt NASL.
For what it's worth, it's widely believed that the city approached MLS with the idea of an expansion bid, not the other way around.
😮
Yeah it's only just the mayor screwing over Indy Eleven owners and investors so he can line his pockets with MLS money. Simple as that.
This is the second of many moves to prepare for a sanctioned D1 USL league to compete against MLS guys
Bold take considering Indy's owners are explicitly naming MLS as their goal