Peter Wilt played an integral part in constructing Indy Eleven throughout the club’s inaugural two seasons of NASL play. Now, the former Chicago Fire executive will attempt to do the same while returning to his former home.
Indy Eleven announced on Monday that Wilt is set to transition into a role with sports consulting firm CLUB 9 SPORTS while pursuing the creation of a Chicago NASL club. First reported by Empire of Soccer in October, the club is reportedly hoping to find a home in the Chicago city limits in 2017.
Meanwhile, Indy Eleven revealed that former Indianapolis Motor Speedway President and CEO Jeff Belskus has assumed the role of president effective immediately.
“I am excited to return to Chicago and take on this tremendous challenge. CLUB 9 SPORTS provides a fantastic platform to develop a great, inclusive team that everyone can take pride in and embrace as their own,” Wilt said in a press release. “CLUB 9 SPORTS has been working diligently to assemble a quality investor group on behalf of Jack Cummins and me.
“In order to make this a reality, we now need to secure a proper venue and importantly, we need to work with the soccer community to add a public supporters component to the investor group. We look forward to working with the soccer, civic and business communities to make the connections that will truly make this Chicago’s team.”
At Club 9 Sports, Wilt will work alongside Jack Cummins, one of his partners in the launch of the NWSL’s Chicago Red Stars. Throughout the 2016 Spring Season, Wilt will continue his general managerial duties with the club on a consultant basis. Wilt will continue to help finalize the team’s 2016 roster, which currently features 14 players.
Prior to his time with Indy Eleven, Wilt was the President and General Manager of the Fire in an eight-year run with the club that ended in 2005. Since, Wilt played a pivotal role in helping establish Indy Eleven, for whom he served as president since January 2013.
His replacement, Belskus, joins Indy Eleven after spending nearly three decades in motorsports while connected with Hulman & Company before retiring from the organization in 2015.
“We are constantly looking for ways to strengthen the organization while continuing to make strides towards gaining a new home for Indy Eleven and winning championships,” said Ozdemir. “The addition of someone with Jeff Belskus’ background into our front office is an important part of that continued progress, and I am excited to welcome him on behalf of the Indy Eleven family.”
“Peter Wilt has been an integral part of building and growing Indy Eleven from even before day one. His influence and passion will continue to be felt across the organization and the fan base he helped cultivate,” Ozdemir continued. “We look forward to continuing to work with Peter in the coming months.”
What do you think of the announcement? How realistic is an NASL expansion team in Chicago? What do you expect from both Wilt and Indy Eleven in the coming months?
Share your thoughts below.
Bring back the Sting!!!!!!!!!! Let crappy Fire fold (what a dumb name anyway naming it after an event where 120 people died was dumb to begin with. Why didnt they just name it the Chicago Eastlands or Chicago Fort Dearborns?
The Fire were great..only Columbus copied the colors
Complete waste of time. NASL should focus on bringing soccer to under served markets instead of pretending to compete with MLS. The supposed flagship team in NASL draws 4k a game in a college lacrosse stadium because who’s going to go watch them when they can watch MLS instead?
Well, if their intentions are to set-up shop IN Chicago, then it very much IS an untapped market.
Maybe only 4K people in NY want to see Championship soccer. That flagship team has won two championships in three years.
Peter Wilt is a treasure as a soccer evangelist, pioneer, and executive in the Midwest. The fact that there is another local start-up that wants to have someone with the connections and local know-how is no surprise–and that it is a previous business partner that made the call to get him involved is even less of a shock. I don’t see it so much as a ‘screw you’ to the Fire brass, I see it as a valid opportunity for Peter to do what he loves: the stress of starting a new side, making the connections to make something durable and viable, and the excitement the comes with a genuine love of the game and bringing a new club to fruition is most of what drives him. Sure there’s ego involved, everyone has one–but are you really telling me that any of you think his sole (or even biggest) motivator is all of this is to say ‘f-u’ to Andell? You’d be sadly mistaken–he’s not that bitter of a man.
Let’s raise a Schlabst for Peter, whether you’re from Mil-town, Chi-town, or Indy–and any point in between or all around. Here’s to you Peter, thank you, and we wish you all the success in the world.
Bringing NASL back to Chicago (Sting anyone?) seems like a good idea. At some point the MLS will stop expanding (my guess 32 teams) and it will still leave plenty of viable markets for additional soccer teams….Chicago included.
As bad as the Fire are, I can see fans supporting a Chicago based team pretty easily. There is a lot of anger amongst Fire fans, with poor ownership and an aging stadium that sits too far from the city and is hard to get to.
A challenge for sure, but given the right location, it mat work.
Toyota Park? Aging? Give me a break. It opened in 2006.
This competing league nonsense has got to stop. Cannibalizing the soccer fan base is going to be disastrous for both sides. I’ve been a STH since day one of the Fire – and I love what Wilt did with our club. But looks to me like Wilt is trying to get back into Chicago to give a big F-U to the org that dumped him and prove he can make a better club. I bet he actually could, especially with a city limits stadium situation – but in the meantime, it’d be sucking the life out of the Fire if it grew…
Good.
Chicago might be the worst ran club in MLS and the fans deserve better at every level and in every category. Garber continues his obsession with Miami, two clubs in New York and two clubs in LA at the expense of focusing on his other big market: Chicago.
No hyperbole – the league needs to blow up and reset Chicago Fire like they did Chivas. It’s that bad.
What if it’s all part of a long con by Chicago Fire to get a stadium in Chicago city limits?
I kid. The Fire don’t give a shit.
Ha. You might be on to something, Ian.
What MLS did to the Silverbacks & now Scorpions wasn’t cool. So I’m all for this. I can only hope downtown Philadelphia & put the Kicks in the new Vikings stadium is next
What did mls do?