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The majority owner of the Indy Eleven professional soccer franchise says he is open to making another bid to join Major League Soccer, but stopped short of committing to such an effort as part of a new development planned for the southwestern quadrant of downtown.
Ersal Ozdemir, owner of Keystone Group and a majority shareholder in the team, expects to to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on mixed-use real estate components of Eleven Park, a $1 billion stadium district on the site of the Diamond Chain manufacturing site along the White River.
IBJ first reported Feb. 17 on an updated timeline for the development, which features a hotel, more than 600 apartments, tens of thousands of square feet of retail and restaurants, and an office building.
The project, anchored by a 20,000-seat stadium, could reignite at least some interest from MLS leadership in Indianapolis receiving an expansion franchise. For years, Ozdemir has pursued an expansion franchise, but each time the league has rejected his overtures, in part because the team has lacked its own venue, but also because of its proximity to other teams in the Midwest.
Right now, the team plays in the United Soccer League Champion league, the second-level league that includes more than 30 clubs in the United States and Canada.
While Ozdemir said he’s not as bullish as he once was on pushing for an MLS expansion team—a move that now carries a price tag north of $300 million for entry alone—he isn’t swatting down the idea of someday joining the league. He also indicated he would be open to taking over a team from another city.
“If there was an opportunity for us to buy an expansion [club] one day, and it makes sense to bring it to the city, we will be very open to that—we’re happy to do that,” he said. “If there is a potential in the future, where there’s a relocation opportunity for a team, to do that, we’ll be open to that, but that’s not what we are focused on. We’ll never close the door.”
Ozdemir said when ground is broken on the stadium project in May, it will at least be a signal to MLS and others that Indianapolis is among the few cities in the country moving forward with plans for a venue that could accommodate an MLS franchise.
What’s not clear is whether there will be significant, long-term fan support for a franchise at the new venue, whether it plays in MLS or remains one rung down in the USL Championship. During its 2022 home slate at IUPUI’s Michael A. Carroll Stadium, the team drew an average of just under 8,300 fans in 17 home games on its way to an overall 12-17-5 record.
It averaged just under 12,000 in its final season (2019) at Lucas Oil Stadium before the pandemic. That was also the last time the team posted a winning record (19-9-6).
Despite the shrinking attendance figures, Ozdemir said he’s optimistic the team will continue building its fan base—and he’s planning to put more skin in the game to improve the team’s stock.
“We’ve invested a significant amount of money up to now in the team—millions—and we’ll continue to do so,” he said, adding that he’s confident the team will sell out the stadium in its first year.
Ozdemir declined to share exactly how much he plans to invest in the Indy Eleven franchise (which also features a women’s team that plays in the upstart USL W league), but said it will involve doubling the size of the team’s front office staff and coaching crews, as well as significantly increasing player payroll.
Because the Eleven are also expected to manage the new Capital Improvement Board-owned stadium, the team also plans to spend extensively on maintenance crews, groundskeepers, security and other positions. The owner also said there are plans to boost soccer operations and marketing to bolster the team’s overall ecosystem.
“The team will run the venue, so we’ll need people to do that to accommodate everything,” Ozdemir said.
Ozdemir said he expects the moves will pay off, but also acknowledged there’s a risk to it all.
“A lot of other sports, people spend a lot of money [and] they don’t win—there are no guarantees,” he said. “We’ve been in the top echelon of the payroll in the past, but we will continue to increase that significantly to make sure we have we have the best team on the field. Every year, the goal is for a championship, not just playoffs, but the championship.
“It’s not realistic to win a championship every year, but we want to make sure it’s a competitive team every year to do that. And to do that you have to invest in in the team, as well. We will do that as part of this project.”
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“he is open to making another bid”. Ha! Yeah that’s the attitude that will really land a franchise here. Why was this article even printed, IBJ?
Because it fits the agenda of the Nuvo Business Journal. For some bizarre reason, soccer is championed by the left and you can see from the comments, the journal is reaching its target audience. Indy soccer draws 4-5k. MLS attendance figures are dubious, but even then, there are only a handful of teams that could fill the proposed stadium. This owner has been on a decades long quest to scam the taxpayer, but none of that matters to the unicorn and rainbow crowd below
On a different note, I find myself agreeing with Joe, so I might need to rethink my position…
Hey Chuck, is it that you can’t read or just don’t comprehend what you read? Where’d you pull the 4-5k figure from? It says right there that they averaged 8,300 fans per game last season. And since when is the worlds most popular sport a “left” thing? A better team and permanent venue will likely lead to much better attendance.
Chuck, if it makes you feel any better, Ozdemir convinced a lot of Indiana Congressmen against voting to acknowledge that Turkey did in fact try to exterminate the Armenian race.
For a resolution that passed 405-11! Not exactly a big lefty move.
http://americanstudies.am/turkish-financing-of-the-congressman-who-voted-against-h-res-296/
Attendance went from 12,000 to 8,300 but he’s confident he’ll sell out the 20,000 seat stadium in year 1. LOL. It’s that kind of “optimism” that got him laughed out of the Statehouse years ago while on a subsidy hunt 🙂
Its that kind of pessimism that prevents anything from getting done. Back in the eighties, they said the Circle Center Mall or downtown development would never happen. The Circle Center Mall has run its course after almost 30 years, but will be re-cycled to something else. Downtown development has surged and in places no one would have lived, there are now thousands. You have to have seen or remember Downtown Indy prior to the development that stated in the early eighties. While many cities are crumbling completely, Indianapolis is still building despite the city government letting bums live on the city streets.
We’ve got a city county building and the jail and Old City Hall and a Heliport to redevelop. And, oh yeah, a mall.
If you’re telling me that we as a state are willing to reinvest in redeveloping these areas, OK. If the state is willing to let Indianapolis set their own taxes to accomplish these goals, OK.
But I don’t think that’s what we’ve been doing. Correct me if I’m wrong, but all we do is issue more TIF funds. We get something shiny and new and the increased revenue doesn’t go to roads or schools, it goes elsewhere.
We are awash in money and we don’t have any idea how to spend it so we keep stupidly issuing tax refund checks … and we wonder why we have inflation.
Nothing like sideline hecklers. We have a guy who wants to make our city a first class soccer venue. So the boo birds come out. With that sort of positive help we could go back to being Indianoplace.
Ask him why he’s been late on his property taxes on his home in Carmel 2/3 past years. Maybe he’s out over his skis?
Build it they will come!!
If this was any other city, he would get all the support he needs. Louisville just built a stadium for their team. Columbus, Cincinnati, Kansas City as well as Nashville. All these are Indy’s peer cities and as usual we’re letting them out do us while at the same time boasting we’re the amateur sports capital of the world. Go BIG or stay home indy and let the BIG players get all the attention.
Pretty much
Ha! Wow!
I would say Micah D and Kevin P are the same person. Except Micah always gives himself away with the over-use of exclamation points.
This development, if it ends up looking anything like the renderings, will be many significantly better than the venues in any of those cities.
Exactly and there talking about adding a NEW BRIDGE to CONNECT the west side across the river. This is positive improvement on so many fronts. A lot of hecklers in the comments that don’t like progress, new money, or soccer. It’s incredibly exciting to watch in person.
If you want a new stadium, fine. Just don’t pay for it with yet another TIF that is going to mean less money for roads and schools in Marion County.
Because the current state is an either/or. And I’m tired of the potholes, to be frank.
If this deal was coming along with an MLS team, it would be an exciting addition. It will still have good use as an additional event venue in addition to having the USL team and other sports. That area of the city needs the development and this will serve as an impetus for additional development in the area.
Soccer really is not a Left/Right thing, more of a youth/world sport thing. Some people just read the news looking for reasons to get triggered. The fact is that the sport is continuing to grow in this country, that we will not have a team in Indy is not a great look. Nothing lasts forever. Baseball was the dominant interest sport for decades and it seemed unimaginable that it would not be at some point. NFL is dominant and it seems unimaginable that it could not be one day… until its not. MLS is will have a seat at the table and will only grow in the decades to come as the overall talent base improves.
The attendance arguments are really nothing. It would be like having an XFL team and using its attendance for reasoning as to why a city shouldn’t have an NFL team.
#facts biggest sport in the world.
Soccer has been “taking over in America” since Pele came in 1978.
Kids in America have a lot more options to play pro sports that pay them a lot more money than playing soccer.
I don’t love all sports, but I don’t let it cloud my assessment of market dynamics.
Go and check out the scene before an MLS game in another city. It might be eye opening. The revenue it is bringing into cities, particularly those with downtown stadiums, is very real. Is it the Premier League or even the Bundesliga, no way. Could it become a competitive league that one day competes in Cup competitions (and for talent) with Europe, absolutely. On a visit to Columbus for market intel, I took in the scene for a Crew match. I was surprised, and also dismayed at what the state took a hard pass on.
Nobody said it was taking over, but its going to have an increasing bigger presence. Apple employs very smart people, they didn’t jump in and buy the rights to the entire league on a lark. They have the market research and the projections that tell them what that investment is worth. They also saw the off the charts ratings for the last World Cup and the strength of the PL. I’m guessing a guy shaking a stick and saying “Soccer’s been taking over since 1978” isn’t in the research docs.
Great, then, the time to get in on soccer was 10 or 15 years ago and we missed the boat. It appears the best case scenario for Indianapolis would be taking over a franchise that fails somewhere else … which, according to your own logic, isn’t going to happen anytime soon because soccer is going to take off, this time for sure.
The second best scenario is that someone with gobs and gobs of money either lures a team away or spends the $300 million franchise fee to get into the league. Where is that money going to come from?
Look, I understand there is risk in all these things. Indianapolis once built a football stadium without a team. That didn’t work so well for San Antonio. At least we could use the dome for other uses like big conventions or youth sports events. What are we going to use a soccer stadium for outside of the state high school soccer championship?
But paying 80% of the cost and diverting the taxes made towards that instead of public coffers, for decades to come, for a guy like Ozdemir?
https://www.ibj.com/articles/46528-no-holds-barred-tactics-lifted-developer-ozdemir
Let it be known that I too am interested in MLS ownership.