Indiana’s shameless eagerness to play jealousy prop for the Chicago Bears clarifies why Indianapolis apparently won’t be getting a Major League Soccer club.
The state’s Republican leaders don’t want MLS in Indianapolis. At least, not if it means delivering a win to a political opponent, and not if it means torturing the ego of a friend and donor.
MLS Commissioner Don Garber visited Indianapolis a year ago to deliver a loud-and-clear message: He wants MLS in Indianapolis, and soon.
Garber’s presence signaled a rare level of urgency. Sports commissioners don’t leave their driveways, much less visit cities outside their league borders, without an objective. Sources I talked to at the time believed Garber was taking extraordinary steps to fast-track Indianapolis as an MLS city.
Since then? Nothing.
What happened?
When math gets subjective
It’s been difficult to answer that — until now.
Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray recently described the stalled-out MLS talks as a classic case of the math not mathing.
“It doesn’t look like there’s much chance for that,” Bray said. “I think they’re having a hard time finding the numbers that work.”
If the problem comes down to an unwillingness to subsidize (yet another) pro sports stadium, I can buy that. Stadium deals chronically underperform economic development projections, enriching sports owners rather than the public.
But that isn’t Indiana’s position.
The same leaders who can’t pencil out a stadium deal to bring MLS to Indianapolis are twisting themselves into Pythagorean pretzels to build a stadium for the Bears in Hammond.
It’s quite a split screen to behold. On the left, you have MLS earnestly signaling it wants to put a team in Indianapolis while state leaders say no; on the right, you have the Bears using Indiana as a mistress to extract more money out of Illinois while state leaders willfully mistake flirtation for a promise of marriage.
Bears get a blank check; MLS gets nothing
Indiana loves subsidizing sports stadiums — except when it doesn’t. And when it doesn’t, there must be an underlying reason.
Chuck Surack, the Fort Wayne billionaire and Sweetwater founder who also owns Sweet Helicopters and holds a financial stake in Indy Eleven, offered a clue in a recent IndyStar op-ed as he made the case for saving the downtown heliport that is part of Mayor Joe Hogsett’s proposed MLS stadium site.
“A heliport and a major soccer stadium can coexist, perhaps near this site, with smart design and clear limits, or at the Diamond Chain location that Hogsett previously supported,” Surack wrote.
The casual reference to the “Diamond Chain location” is doing a lot of work. That site is controlled by Indy Eleven majority owner Ersal Ozdemir. It also happens to be the site of Indianapolis’ first public cemetery, where hundreds of early Black residents were among those buried — and among those left behind when other remains were relocated.
MLS has signaled, behind the scenes, that it would never put a club at that site. Yet, unlike with Indiana’s breathless pursuit of the Bears, state leaders are prioritizing fidelity to Ozdemir over the attraction of pro sports.
Here’s the backstory: Ozdemir planned to build a 20,000-seat mixed-use stadium project at the Diamond Chain site for Indy Eleven, a soccer club that averages fewer than 10,000 fans per match. It made no sense. Hogsett foolishly went along with the plan in 2023, a time when he was eager to cut ribbons on his way to reelection.
Then Hogsett stumbled into an opportunity to bring an MLS club to Indianapolis — but only if he would forsake Ozdemir and his problematic burial ground stadium site.
Hogsett did what the Bears are doing now. He acted shrewdly to maximize his opportunity.
Ozdemir’s revenge
Hogsett won the battle. Ozdemir appears to be winning the war.
Ozdemir adopted a posture that if he couldn’t personally bring MLS to Indianapolis, then no one could. So, it seems, no one will. More than a year and a half after Indianapolis approved a stadium plan, state officials are sitting on their hands.
Ozdemir spent many years cultivating relationships with elected officials, not least through political donations. Statehouse Republicans seem happy to stand with Ozdemir at his line in the sand — especially if it means flipping the bird to Hogsett, a Democrat, and slowly killing his potentially legacy-building accomplishment of landing MLS.
Fair enough. Let’s just be clear about why it’s happening. Indiana isn’t shutting out MLS over fiscal conservatism. This is about tribalism and egos and silly political games.
It’s small-time thinking. That’s what will keep MLS out of Indiana — and what will help the Bears get a better deal to renew their vows with Illinois.
At least we’ll still have Indy Eleven.
Contact James Briggs at 317-444-4732 or james.briggs@indystar.com. Follow him on X at @JamesEBriggs.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana chases the Bears, ghosts MLS | Opinion
Reporting by James Briggs, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
