Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
A state lawmaker wants to give the Indy Eleven professional soccer team more time to finalize its plans for a dedicated soccer stadium—even as an announcement regarding the planned location for the venue appears imminent.
Sen. Jack Sandlin, R-Indianapolis, on Friday filed Senate Bill 385, which would add two years to a 2019 bill that called for a new special tax district—known as a professional sports development area—to be established in Marion County by mid-2022. The bill extends that date to July 1, 2024.
The PSDA would capture taxes spent in a certain geographical area surrounding the stadium to help finance the project. Indy Eleven is required to sign a long-term agreement with the city’s Capital Improvement Board (which also owns and operates the Indiana Convention Center and Lucas Oil Stadium) and pay for 20 percent of the stadium construction costs.
The new PSDA would have to be enacted by the city’s Metropolitan Development Commission, but Sandlin’s bill allows the commission additional time—once a deal is struck between the city and the team.
Indy Eleven officials said last week that they plan to announce a location for the proposed $550 million Eleven Park development, which would include a stadium, by the end of March. Team officials have declined to elaborate on the plans.
“Indy Eleven is excited to welcome 2021 and after delays caused by the pandemic we are pushing ahead with plans for Eleven Park,” the team said in a statement. “We plan to announce the location of the new stadium by the end of March. Stay tuned!”
In a statement, CIB Executive Director Andy Mallon said Sandlin’s bill extending the timeline is “ultimately good for the integrity of the project and the economic development it can bring.”
“Large multi-use projects like what Indy Eleven has proposed are complex, even without the added burden created by a pandemic,” Mallon said. “The CIB is looking forward to working with Indy Eleven as plans move forward and is excited about the possibility of a permanent home for soccer in Indianapolis.”
Passed in 2019, Senate Bill 7 included language approving the creation of an additional PSDA in the county, as well as other measures, such as $270 million for renovations to Bankers Life Fieldhouse and an expansion of existing PSDAs.
SB 7 allows up to $9.5 million annually in tax revenues to be captured for up to 32 years to pay off bonds for an outdoor soccer stadium. Sandlin’s bill would mean collections could start either once all requirements are met as part of a deal, or on June 30, 2023—whichever is sooner.
It’s not clear if there are ongoing talks between the city and the franchise. The team is not required to join Major League Soccer for a deal to move forward, as was originally proposed.
For years, the team has eyed various sites in the downtown area, including the former Valspar site west of Lucas Oil Stadium, but it’s not entirely clear where the team now plans to build its development or if that site remains in contention.
IBJ reported last January that the team scaled back its initial plans of a 20,000-seat stadium, and instead is pursuing a development that has at least 12,000 seats and can be expanded as the fanbase grows. At the same time, the team confirmed it was still considering three sites in Marion County, but declined to identify them.
Wherever the project goes, taxpayers are only expected to be on the hook for the stadium portion. The remainder of Eleven Park—including apartments, retail, office and parking—would be privately funded.
Neither Sandlin nor Indy Eleven immediately returned requests for comment.
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.
Lucas oil exists and we’re all still paying for it
I’m glad we always have money for sports stadiums but it’d be nice once in a while if they were held to the same standard that IndyGo is held to when it comes to self sufficiency. Maybe IndyGo should start a bus racing league and they could get some cushy tax incentives.
Since when is IndyGo held to the standard of self sufficiency? Obviously they are not.
They’re being asked to raise six million dollars every single year by a state legislator who apparently is willing to torpedo further expansion if they can’t pull it off. It makes IndyGo unique about bus systems, none of which apparently have to do this.
https://www.ibj.com/articles/legislators-poised-to-rap-indygo-for-fundraising-flop
The best part is … turns out, the fight is mostly that he’s upset that Washington Street will lose a lane due to the changes. Which affects his constituents in Franklin Township greatly, I suppose…
But they can’t re-do the plan to accommodate his desires without losing the federal grant money that will pay for the lines, but also major road work needed on Washington Street.
Yet another instance of Republicans meddling with downtown Indianapolis at the Statehouse since they can’t win local elections in Marion County…
https://www.indystar.com/story/opinion/columnists/james-briggs/2020/12/17/indygo-red-line-likely-face-general-assembly-scrutiny-again/3925920001/
Why on earth would we ever consider this? Don’t sports already drain enough from our coffers? If they are such a valued asset with a fan base that will pay off any dept why. Give any tax dollar away! Post Covid let’s supposed existing businesses that were existing without tax subsidies! No excuse at this point for giving money away to non-essential businesses. Not to mention the Indians don’t require this level of risk to public debt to exist!!
Who’s ready to pay for a third rate sports teams stadium? Not me!
Let me get this straight. Marion County Senator Sandlin wants to give wealthy team owner more time to build his government financed boondoggle of an arena. Meanwhile from another area of Marion County, Senator Freeman wants to put an immediate end to expanding public transportation because IndyGo couldn’t raise enough private funds to finance PUBLIC transportation.
My guess is, Sandlin, Freeman or Ersal Ozdemir (owner of Indy 11) have never stepped foot on an IndyGo bus.
Maybe the solution is to have the new proposed Purple Line have a stop in front of the proposed stadium.
It is a little crazy none of those lines run any closer to our stadiums, malls, convention centers. I get that its from the misguided fear that unwanted people will find their way to those places, but I thought that was mostly rebuffed elsewhere.
Any compromise should include rapid lines going to and from publicly financed areas of social interest. That’s just crazy talk though, isn’t it?
building in an area that needs some stimulus would make more sense. Maybe W.38 th street in Lafayette Square area
Thumbs up!
20 soccer games is not a stimulus.
People need to understand that if a current business moves into the Eleven’s PSDA then certain tax revenues paid by that business are now directed to fund the Stadium. Therefore, this represents a tax revenue loss to the City and/or County. So Indiana taxpayers must hope this development attracts business from outside the State in order for this to be of benefit.
Amazing how this idiotic project just never goes away. How much bribe money are politicians collecting on this? It must be a huge number.
The State won’t properly fund schools, teacher pay, road repairs, but they’re willing to take tax revenues away from Marion County to subsidize a wealthy businessman so that he can earn even more money.
Yes indeed. But with the blessing of Marion County’s mayor and city-county council, I believe. It’s been awhile, so I apologize if I’m wrong on that. One might think the pandemic would at least have the silver lining of making this ridiculous unnecessary publicly funded project go away. How much revenue has the CIB lost out on over the last ten months?
Just tax the Legislators to pay for this.