By FRANCO PANIZO
Indy Eleven’s stadium dream is still alive and well.
Indy Eleven received good news on Wednesday, as the Indiana House voted in favor of the bill proposing the construction of a 18,500-seat stadium in downtown Indianapolis. The vote passed with a 73-21 count.
“Indy Eleven appreciates the time that members of the House put forth to consider the merits of House Bill 1273, and we’re pleased to have such momentum as we turn our focus to the Senate,” said Indy Eleven president and general manager Peter Wilt in a statement. “We also thank the legions of soccer fans from around Indiana who have reached out to support our efforts to build a permanent home for the fastest growing sport in the nation.”
The Senate will have to vote on the projected $82 million stadium next, and some of its members have already expressed the need to address other things before the stadium can be given a go.
“I don’t get too excited over it, but at the same time, I haven’t delved into it too deeply this year,” Senate president Pro Temper David Long told IndyStar.com. “We’re really focused on funding our priorities. Those have to come first. If the soccer stadium makes fiscal sense, we’ll certainly consider it. … That’s an additional issue that might have to wait … and even then, I don’t know where it would go.”
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What do you make of this development?
Share your thoughts below.
It’s over now, over.
MLS will swiftly announce they are ruled out of any consideration of possible expansion.
Anyone else feel like this stadium is too small for their team?
I think MLS is smart to “cap” at 24 teams right now. It has created buzz and pushed a couple ownership groups out of the woodwork. They should hit 24, take a deep breath for 3 or 4 years, then consider another expansion plan, where they charge bare minimum $100 million franchise fee. Again, Garber has done a great job and knows exactly what he’s doing.
I think Garber’s mistake is setting a hard cap at 24 and stopping. I think the smarter play is to setting a few “x teams playing by 20xx” goals that allow for a gradual growth while at the same time letting contenders know that the real hard cap is 36 (two 18 team tables seems right). Garber shouldn’t want cities to give up on stadium building, or worse, build for another league, if they don’t view MLS expansion as realistic. MLS needs to keep dangling that carrot or another league will be able to offer true competition at some point given the size of the US market.
Exactly, garber shouldn’t say we are stopping at 24.
Soccer is growing so much in the US and if garber gives NASL breathing space, they will take it and keep the same plan towards MLS, since MLS doesn’t want an MLS2.
In the other hand, MLS can easily jump to 26 teams by latest 2022.
Don’t forget expansion teams in line are more progressive than never before.
Right now we are at 22 teams, and 4 want in, which equals to 26 teams. Garber should let them all 4 in and just give them their year to come in.
2017 is Atlanta and LA2 but I don’t see LA2 making it in time, plus I see them playing in the new nfl stadium.
2018 will be Miami and Sacramento
2020 just give it to Minneapolis and San Antonio.
The fun part about this, teams like indy11, Tampa bay, okc might give some serious competition.
It is not good to have a league with two many teams. Germany fashioned the Bundesliga after the English system. It works well because people can keep track of the teams and players. Fans lose interest when there are too many things to keep tack of in the top league. I am in favor of something like the BPL or the Bundesliga or the Italian system with lower divisions and teams being relegated or moved up depending on how they do during the season.
Its apples and oranges. The US/Canada market is roughly comparable to the entire European market, which has many dozens of top flight teams. Imagine if the Bundesliga was the European league, or if the Group Stages of the Champions League constituted all of top flight European football. The US can handle way more than 24 top flight teams if the money/owners are there.
*President Pro Tempore
A president pro tempore is a constitutionally recognized officer of a legislative body who presides over the chamber in the absence of the normal presiding officer.
I don’t know, but MLS is getting into a big hole of expansion, when he is suppose to say, we are aiming at 28 teams and good. We also gotta be honest and ask garber, do you see NASL as a rival or a friend.
If we look at the soccer pyramid, this is is what we have:
MLS is D1
NASL is D2
USL is D3 but wants to be D2 with reserve teams, wtf not good, stay as D3. Hopefully NASL takes USL non reserve teams.
USL PDL is D4
NPSL is D5
But the worst thing about these leagues, is that they have no connection and USL for some reason talks to garber but just because they want to be D2.
I don’t get when people say NASL is D2. It is completely seperate, why would it be D2. It is the highest level in their league, wouldn’t that be D1 ?
Isn’t it possible there is no D2 for MLS and no D2 for NASL ?
Something has to happen, MLS will create an MLS 2 if they don’t want to reach 30 teams but I’m pretty sure MLS can easily hit 32 teams and create an NFl environment for MLS.
Like I said before 32 teams in MLS wouldn’t be bad. ( they just need 8 more teams to get to 32)
16 in each conference and top 8 in each conference makes the playoffs.
People call NASL D2, because that’s it’s designation by USSF. They / USSF have a list of requirements / standards for the top 3 levels of soccer in this country. It’s more then them just saying your D1,D2 or D3. There are certain requirements that need to me. And technically the NASL does not meet all those for D2, but they have received a waiver and time to meet all the requirements.
Indy is a great example of why MLS stopping at 24 teams leaves plenty of room for it to eventually have competition as the top soccer league in the US. No one is close right now to MLS, but MLS itself wasn’t close 10 years ago either. MLS would be leaving too many untouched large markets at 24, and that presumes that a second league couldn’t find success in existing MLS markets (particularly those without downtown or 2.0 type soccer stadiums). There are about a dozen NFL cities that won’t have an MLS team at 24, and all of those cities support at least one other major sports franchise. Throw in MLS markets without downtown stadiums (e.g., Philly and Chicago), a possible Cosmos stadium for New York metro market, and its easy to see how MLS could be undermined given the will and dollars. I’m not suggesting this will happen, only that there is plenty of room for it to happen if the stars align. MLS can’t simply assume its going to be the top soccer league because of its existing platform.
Great points, but that could be what is going to make soccer succeed. Improve or be the second rate league in your own country.
I think MLS should aim for 28 or 30 teams, or just simply 32 teams.
Why stop at 24 when MLS doesn’t even communicate with NASL and doesn’t want an MLS2.
MLS should go for 32 teams, 16 in each conference and have about 6 inter league games per season.
Then about D2,D3 and so on, something has to happen by 2022.
If you ask me about promotion and relegation, yes we needed once we have enough teams in a D2 and communicates with MLS and the pro/reg system would be modify to work with MLS and like I said before, no original MLS team would go down and only the teams that were put in place in MLS1 due to their accomplishments would be going head to head to stay alive. It might sound confusing but it’s the best scenario for MLS to have pro/reg .