INDIANAPOLIS – The City-County Council introduced a proposal Monday night that could eventually lead to Major League Soccer in Indianapolis.
During Monday’s meeting, the proposal was referred to the Rules and Public Policy Committee. It would set up an additional tax district for a “professional sports development area” near the downtown heliport in Indianapolis.
The measure, sponsored by Council President Vop Osili, comes after Mayor Joe Hogsett said in late April that the city hoped to attract a Major League Soccer team to the Circle City. He made the announcement shortly after meeting in New York with MLS Commissioner Don Garber.
Hogsett called the proposal’s introduction “the next step” in realizing the city’s major league ambitions:
Tonight, with the introduction of the proposal to create a new soccer-specific stadium site near the downtown heliport, Indianapolis takes the next step in the process by which we can secure a Major League Soccer expansion club for our community. I am grateful for the leadership of President Osili and look forward to continued conversations with City-County Councilors, downtown stakeholders and our community members over the coming weeks as we build an application that sends a clear message to MLS: Indianapolis is a major league city.
Mayor Joe Hogsett
The MLS plan has generated plenty of controversy. After all, the city already has the Indy Eleven and had been working on a new soccer stadium for the USL team.
Keystone Group, the developer behind Eleven Park, said it was “incredibly disappointed” by recent events, adding that the proposal was “shrouded in mystery”:
Indy Eleven and its development team are incredibly disappointed in President Osili's unprecedented decision to deny the City-County Council's Metropolitan and Economic Development Committee an opportunity to fairly judge the out-of-state brokerage proposal that continues to be shrouded in mystery. That same committee supported Eleven Park unanimously in December and the Mayor’s Office itself has recently confirmed it is the appropriate venue for such a project.
Along with so many in the Indianapolis business community, we remain concerned that these continuing efforts to bend Council rules to the will of the executive branch threatens both the future of Eleven Park and the future of economic development in our state's capital city. It would be our sincere hope that President Osili will commit to his constituents and colleagues that he will respect the Council as an independent branch of government, and not make additional changes clearly aimed at bypassing long-standing protocols for the legislative process.
Keystone Group statement
The Rules & Public Policy Committee is scheduled to meet on May 28, according to the council’s public calendar. Osili said it was referred to that committee so that the proposal can be discussed in a public forum as soon as possible.
The next full council meeting is scheduled for June 3.