According to an article in the Indianapolis Business Journal by Anthony Schoettle, the owner of the new Indy Eleven soccer franchise Ersal Ozdemir is asking for taxpayer help in building a new soccer stadium on a yet to be determined site in the downtown area. The new team will be a part of the North American Soccer League. Mr. Ozdemir has been able to sell 7,000 advance season tickets already and now feels that the fan support is such that it’s not too earlier to start a drive for an 18,500 seat stadium that would cost $87 million.
The Indy Eleven will be playing at Carroll Stadium on the IUPUI campus. Carroll stadium has 6,000 seats and will be reconfigured to add about 5,000 more seats to give it 11,000 total. Mr. Ozdemir and several other professional soccer reporters have observed that support for a professional soccer team has grown much more rapidly then anyone could have determined. He further states that no team in either the NASL or even Major League Soccer has started this strong in ticket sales and fan support.
Mr. Ozdemir proposes to take only tax money from what the team will have to pay in taxes on the profits of ticket sales, food and beverage sales, parking, merchandise, and souvenirs. The first Indy Eleven home game will be on April 12th against the Carolina RailHawks. This and most of the games will be televised on Indy Channel 23. The spring season will consist of nine games, five of which will be at Carroll Stadium. The fall season will see 18 games played with the July 12th season opening against the Caroline RailHawks in WakeMed Park Stadium in Cary, North Carolina. The home opener will be on July 19th against the Tampa Bay Rowdies. There will be nine home games in all. The season tickets will be good for both the spring and fall schedules.
The team’s name the “Indy Eleven” comes from the eleven men of the team that will be on the playing field, but it was also to pay tribute to 11th Regiment of Indiana infantry which fought in the Civil War. The home colors will be blue with red piping and numerals.
Since asking for taxpayer’s money to build stadiums, arenas, practice fields, and so on has become sort of the thing for sports franchisers to do, I suppose it should not be surprising that Ersal Ozdemir and the Indy Eleven team are asking for the same consideration. The Indians, the Pacers, and the Colts have all done the same thing. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway, after 100 years of paying its own way, finally went begging for $100 million and got it. The only problem is the potential for destroying the good will that most of Indianapolis has expressed for the new team — particularly if the team is not an immediate success. Indianapolis loves a winner but will not support a loser.
Timing is another issue. When the citizens of the city are being told there isn’t enough money available for full police and fire protection, and when street and sidewalk repair, and sewer upgrading and sanitation have to be put on hold because of lack of funds, then it’s time to question our priorities. Is an another sports venue more important than our potential health and safety? Indianapolis taxpayers are currently being asked to finance a $6 million cricket field. When does it end?
Perhaps we should devise a way to make the police sound like a sports team. Instead of calling them the IPD we could call them the “Indy Blue Bombers.” The Sheriff’s Department could become the “Marion Peace Makers.” How about calling the road building crews “Shoveling Machine.” Then we could go to the state legislature, or the Governor, or the Mayor or whoever and say that our sports franchise needs tax money to build a new stadium. Not much — just $80 or 100 $million to give us a winning team. I’ll bet we could get the money we need then. snicewanger@yahoo.com