Source: WISH-TV / other
INDIANAPOLIS — On Wednesday initial approval was given by a city commission in Indianapolis to move forward with the mayor’s new proposal to build a soccer stadium to attract an MLS expansion club.
The Indianapolis City Development Commission voted to approve the plan despite hundreds of Indy Eleven fans showing up to the meeting sporting “Build Eleven Park” shirts as they are demanding the city move forward with plans already in motion to build a stadium for their team.
“We’re frustrated because we just don’t know what’s going on,” said David Ziemba, the head of the Brickyard Battalion, an independent group of Indy Eleven fans. “We’ve got information from the club and from Keystone Construction, but what we don’t have is the piece of the puzzle is information from the city about why this is happening.”
Mayor Joe Hogsett shocked soccer fans all throughout the city last Thursday when he announced that the city would be pursuing an MLS expansion club. It was previously thought that that plan included investing in Indy Eleven, who currently play in the USL Championship.
Hogsett has since pivoted from those plans saying that he doesn’t think Indy Eleven ownership has the private or public funding to finish Eleven Park. He feels his new plan for a stadium site on the southeast side of downtown at the old Indianapolis Heliport, about a mile from the Eleven Park site, has a much better chance of success.
Some on the Indianapolis City-County Council don’t see it that way.
“We already have an approved development for such a site,” said City-County Councilor Kristen Jones, a Democrat who represents the district in which the Eleven Park site is.
“This is about the many fans who showed up today to show this city that they want the original PSDA and Allocation area and honor the commitment that we’ve already passed. They want the 11 Park built as planned regardless of which jerseys are worn on that field.”
The mayor said at the end of this only one stadium will be built. The city has until June 30th to submit their proposal for an MLS expansion stadium to the Indiana State Budget Committee in order to create a special tax district for the site, similar to one already created for Eleven Park.
Such a proposal needs the approval of the Indianapolis City-County Council, which Indy Politics has reported at the moment does not support the MLS proposal.
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