Hey, thought I'd drop in and mention that the team finally managed to make it into the Round of 32 in the Open Cup for the first time. Yeah, it took most of MLS skipping the shebang, but at least the team finally won the road in an event that saw us lose to clubs like Mississippi Brilla.
It took forever for us to get a stadium, it turns out even after the shovels were planted, things are heating up. Could the city be backing out of the project because they aren't interested anymore... Or because Indianapolis is thinking bigger.
It just got messy: https://www.indystar.com/story/news...ans-to-bid-for-mls-expansion-team/73458916007 https://www.indystar.com/story/opin...without-ersal-ozdemir-indy-eleven/73463023007 It's hard to see how this ends without pissing off the 10k Indy 11 supporters who've supported the club for the last decade. That's obviously the core soccer support a new team will need to be successful. I would think that fans who have invested that much into Indy 11 would have a hard time jumping ship at this point... Almost like the old guys who still support the Bears or someone else instead of the new-boys-in-town Colts.
The unfortunate reality is that they're not aiming for them, they're aiming for the corporate sponsorships and potential events you can get with an outdoor stadium that Lucas Oil Stadium cannot provide, and the city looked at Keystone and the Eleven and felt they weren't going to succeed long term. I hate that it's gotten messy but I'm also seeing why it's happening. What's really going to ********ing piss me off is us tossing aside a unique identity like the Indy Eleven for something generic like Indianapolis FC.
Could be that Machiavellian Garber is using naive Hogsett to sink the Indy 11 and who knows if an MLS team will come. For many moons, MLS was good for soccer in this country. Now some bad is seeping in.
If documents were signed and agreements made and now broken, sounds like a lawsuit against the city to me. And if could be proven MLS was involved, I would add them to the lawsuit too. I agree with above post. I think the MLS is now starting to play dirty. Creating an MLS-3 league and continuing to add teams in markets where other teams have been. I like Don less and less every year. This just adds to it.
Great meeting with @SenToddYoung today while in DC. https://t.co/PGfYIihR3N— Don Garber (@thesoccerdon) May 1, 2024 I believe the senator played college soccer for the Naval Academy.
More: https://www.indystar.com/story/opin...-is-stronger-without-indy-eleven/73586265007/ Haven't had a chance to read this one yet, but it's mentioned in Briggs' column: https://www.ibj.com/articles/how-the-citys-negotiations-with-keystone-group-broke-down
In original news, Indy took care of San Antonio in Open Cup play, will face Detroit who shockingly eliminated the champs Houston.
Indy Eleven added billionaire Chuck Surak to their ownership group today. https://www.wrtv.com/sports/billion...ership-group-adding-to-teams-battle-with-city
Unless they're going to war with the city, it feels like a lost cause. Ersal needs to either swallow his pride and accept a minority ownership role with the new group to save the Indy 11 brand or plan on closing up shop eventually.
Just seems like MLS running over the USL again...and the MLS doesn't even have firm plans beyond 30 teams (if you want to believe that) Once again, and it won't probably happen, but with the USL bringing a stadium plan, that should be his buy-in and then all the other big money is the expansion fee.....in other words, all work together and come up with a solid plan and guess what, you'll probably be team #31 or #32 when the time comes. Keep the name please. It would just be like other NASL_USL teams that come up to MLS and kept the name. None of this is not rocket science, but egos and money have a habit of messing things up.
That's the thing. The owner explicitly wants his stadium built, and if he's not getting it, then he's gonna kill this MLS bid dead and potentially salt the earth so there's no more soccer in Indiana. Not even the Eleven. Ironically, I'm now on the MLS bid because of this. Both sides are being unfair, but it's clear that Ersal is likely being more shortsighted and petty as ultimately, he would rather have no soccer than his team if Eleven Park isn't built.
---------------------- Have yet to find this here or anywhere else. Did Ersal have a deal signed- paperwork done- with city and/or mayor? If so, he needs to push back on the mayor and/or get legal action going. If he didn't, it's on him. But truthfully, the mayor sounds like an ass or got paid off to suddenly get connected with another group so magically/so soon after the Indy 11 announcements. I feel sorry for the team and fans. Indy 11 has some history, a cool logo etc. It may not end well. Now, we saw what Save the Crew did. Can the Indy 11 fans pull off the same, even if it's just to save the team name and colors etc. /
Television wise, viewership sucks. The league lives off expansion fees and live gate. If he has written evidence that was signed to contract, it's a smoking gun that invalidates the MLS bid, but if it was all just a spoken agreement, then there's not a lot he can do.
My understanding is that the legislature created the PSDA or whatever in 2019 that pledged state money, and part of that deal is that the city has to formally approve the PSDA and financing terms on their end. It sounds like there was an agreement to agree the financing between 11 and the mayor, basically a bare-bones sketch of what the deal would look like. And that had a June deadline for getting it done this year. As the deadline approached, the mayor balked for whatever reason, and here we are. Did the mayor balk because he didn't like 11's numbers, IE they were unrealistic and likely to put the city on the hook for the shortfall? Or did the mayor balk because they had a bigger hitter show up at the last minute and turn his head? I think it's also interesting that the mayor pretty much prevented 11 from talking directly with the council according to IBJ. 11 wanted to meet with them - go straight to the keeper of the purse, but the mayor's attorney said they couldn't.