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Indianapolis awarded NASL franchise to begin play in 2014

Indianapolis, home of Thursday’s MLS SuperDraft, better get used to hosting soccer events.

NASL announced on Wednesday that Indianapolis was the latest city to be awarded an expansion franchise, with the club expected to start play in 2014. The unnamed Indiana team becomes the 12th member of the NASL for the 2014 season, and is owned by president and chief executive officer of Keystone Construction Corporation Ersal Ozdemir.

The franchise is currently asking fans to vote for the club’s name over IndyProSoccer.com. The team name, along with a head coach and player acquisitions, will be announced in the coming months.

The club will play its 2014 home games at Michael Carroll Stadium located on the campus of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), but its long-term goal is to construct a stadium in the downtown area.

What do you think of NASL awarding Indianapolis a franchise? What do you think the club’s name should be? Would you have preferred to see another city given a team?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Positive news for NASL. Hopefully other (soccer/football/futbol) news outlets will begin to give them the time of day. It’s in everybody’s interest for the league to grow and thrive.

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  2. Peter Wilt hard at work. I have no idea why no MLS team has latched onto Peter. This team MUST have Croatian national team style jerseys with black/white check.

    Tippacanoe, now lets score two!

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    • Soccer (which is simply an abbreviation of the word association), Rugby, American Gridiron, Australian Rules, Gaelic, Canadian Gridiron and International Rules all evolved from the informal English game of “football” in the mid 1800s. It’s all football. You don’t have to choose between calling chocolate ice cream “chocolate” or “ice cream”. Soccer is a form of football. Before the NASL days there were plenty of teams named FC in this country. The US Soccer Federation used to be called the US Soccer Football Federation. It’s okay to call it football. Chilly chill chill…

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      • Also, many people actually are calling it football in the US these days. So who is this “we” you speak of? Half the country?

      • Actually, I think I read somewhere that “soccer” preceded the term “football” and Americans preserved the older word while everyone else gradually adopted the later term. That, and we started calling American football what it is and it was nice having another handy term for it. After all, unlike the rest of the world, America isn’t a sports monoculture. Plus, a lot of other countries use alternate names.

        But I have to agree with Chris and Solles on this one, Kyle. We call it “soccer”. No shame in embracing our lingo. That, and every time I ever used the term “football”, no one ever thought I was referring to soccer.

      • yes yes Kyle everyone knows this. but the point is still valid, we call it SOCCER in this country, it should be “SC”instead of “FC”.

      • I completely forgot about that. Then again, I just tend to think of it as Orlando.

        But that’s still only one. We shall not be satisfied until most of the FC’s have been converted to SC’s (I won’t hold my breath for Dallas — they want that elusive Latin market). It’s what George Washington and Noah Webster would’ve wanted. Enough with the British mimicry!

        Granted, the worst thing we could do to the world is change all our FC’s in soccer to SC’s and then add FC to the names of the American football teams’ names. If US Soccer and the NFL ever did that, I think that would rank among the sporting world’s top moments of trolling.

  3. Good stuff! A lot of movement and growth is going on in the NASL. I can only dream of the day when both leagues combine for either a larger league, or a two tier system with promotion and relegation. Just picture it 40 or even more professional teams, only time can tell! !

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  4. I love Racing Indianapolis! There is a history of racing in this city, which is exactly why Racing Santander is called “Racing” because of its long history of Formula One racing. The supporters group is already called the Brickyard Battalion. And with the colors of Black and White like a checkered flag I don’t see what could go wrong.

    So excited to see soccer grow here in Indiana!

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  5. We’ve been waiting a long time for this. Indianapolis is a perfect fit for a NASL team. I like the name Indianapolis International Football Club (Inter Indy FC)

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  6. Seems like there’s a lot of support for “Racing Indy FC.”

    Euro-name haters will hate, but I like it for its tongue-in-cheekedness.

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