I still think MLS is coming to Indy
Major League Soccer is sending weird mixed signals about its expansion plans. I still think Indianapolis will get a team.
The league made its most substantive comments yet about Indianapolis during MLS All-Star week festivities — and they were muted, to say the least. MLS Commissioner Don Garber noted the league will expand to San Diego next year and added that’s “going to be the end of expansion for a period of time until we’re ready to expand again,” per IndyStar’s Brian Haenchen, who was in Columbus.
Indianapolis has been moving with unprecedented speed toward applying for an MLS expansion club, which makes Garber’s sudden hesitancy sound discouraging. But that’s basically a meaningless comment.
More notable to me than Garber’s hedging is that MLS invited Indianapolis representatives to attend All-Star week festivities in the first place — and also encouraged the city to invite local media.
MLS is either leading Indianapolis on to build hype for its product or it is sincerely interested in putting a team here in the near future. I think it’s the latter.
All signs point to Indianapolis
Garber and other league executives have talked for years about growing beyond 30 clubs to at least 32, which would put MLS at the same size as the NFL. It would be shocking if MLS backtracked and stood pat at 30 teams after San Diego launches its club next year.
In addition to general expansion talk, Garber and MLS have repeatedly showed that Indianapolis is a serious contender for a new club. Garber brought Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett to his office in April, posed for a photo with Indiana Sen. Todd Young and encouraged the city’s involvement in AllStar week.
Hogsett didn’t just show up and crash the MLS party. The league gave him a platform to discuss the city’s application plans.
“It’s fair to say MLS was generally aware of the steps we had taken and knew we were reasonably far down the road where we might be able to submit an application for a club. So in that sense, we established a good rapport with MLS,” Hogsett said, per Haenchen’s fine reporting.
Where’s the competition?
You know who didn’t go on media tours in Columbus? Officials from Detroit and Tampa, Florida, which are Indianapolis’ presumed top competitors to land an expansion club in the eastern half of the U.S. MLS is likely to pick one city in the west and one in the east
Barring a surprise entrant to the MLS sweepstakes, Indianapolis has a substantial lead over other hopefuls. Indianapolis has a city-approved stadium site in place and a financing framework to pay for the construction.
The city also has a prospective ownership group ready to take the lead, or so the Hogsett administration says. Per sources, the ownership group was expected to reveal itself before July 4 … and then immediately after July 4 … and, now, who knows.
If there’s a reason to be skeptical about Indianapolis’ MLS bid, it’s the hesitancy of anyone in this ownership group to go public and put their name on it.
Political ceasefire over MLS
If there’s a reason to feel good, though, it’s that the ugly, contentious political fight over the future of pro soccer in Indianapolis seems to have dissipated after last month’s City-County
Council vote creating a new taxing district to build a stadium at the downtown heliport site.
Indy Eleven owner Ersal Ozdemir has been quiet as of late and lawmakers so far aren’t raising a fuss over negating the city’s ability to shift the state-approved financing levers to a new site. Anything can happen, but right now there are no big, scary opponents in the way of bringing an MLS club to Indianapolis.
I wrote last month I felt 60% confident in saying MLS would eventually expand to Indianapolis. If anything, I think my confidence has gone up a bit in recent weeks given the city’s unique preparedness to compete for a team and MLS’ persistent signals that it’s taking Indianapolis’ impending bid seriously.
It’s not really a surprise that the MLS commissioner won’t stand at a podium and say, “Yes, we’re not only expanding again, but Indianapolis is the frontrunner.” Don’t worry so much about what Garber had to say, but rather look at who was around.
Garber made sure that Hogsett and members of the Indianapolis media would be present for the league’s AllStar week. Garber might just be messing with all of us. It seems more likely he’s positioning Indianapolis as the No. 1 city in line to join the league after San Diego.
Contact James Briggs at 317-4444732 or james.briggs@indystar.com. Follow him on X and Threads at @JamesEBriggs.