Could Indy Eleven consider Westfield as a future home?

Could Indy Eleven consider Westfield as a future home?

Lucas Oil Stadium is a gorgeous venue. From the brick siding, massive roof, and the location downtown, the stadium is a prime spot for sports. The home for Indianapolis Colts in the NFL, Indy Eleven has called Lucas Oil Stadium home for 2018 and it would look like at minimum 2019. Lucas Oil Stadium is able to hold 70 thousand, but no more than 15 thousand seats are open for fans to purchase.

While the deal itself was both good business and a great step up from Michael A. Carroll Stadium, fans still see Lucas Oil Stadium as your sibling’s clothes you get passed down. Things like the flood of questions over why the roof to Lucas Oil Stadium had to be open during a match while the area was under a heat advisory make fans wonder if the business advantages of being in a large and beautiful venue aren’t worth the headaches of renting your stadium.

Indianapolis struggles

Unfortunately, though, Indianapolis is simply tapped out. Lucas Oil Stadium was a stadium built on the dream of hosting a Super Bowl and the finances were rushed in order to accommodate the pending bid for the NFL’s championship game. Like a student loan, Indianapolis and the state of Indiana will be paying on the stadium for what will seem like a lifetime and as a result, government officials aren’t willing to throw out their checkbooks at something for just anyone.

Indy Eleven has been at the stadium game since before their first ball dropped at Michael A. Carroll Stadium. Generally, the demands of government officials have been a mixture of higher attendance numbers and the usual goal for most teams wanting their own stadium, a successful bid to join Major League Soccer. On the other side of that coin, you have Don Garber, who has professed that a team will have a dramatically lessened chance of being considered for expansion without the infamous “soccer-specific stadium.”

Indy Eleven’s MLS Co-Owners

Indy Eleven has worked tirelessly to pull together anyone locally with enough money to contribute to their bid. Business owners like auto dealer Andy Mohr; Elwood Staffing President Mark Elwood; Heritage Environmental Services President Jeff Laborsky, and Mickey Maurer, a shareholder in The National Bank of Indianapolis and IBJ Corp., the parent company of the Indianapolis Business Journal (According to the IBJ).

With the money for the bid amount (expansion fees for MLS are in the upper 200 million), the money isn’t there for the stadium. It’s generally understood that the co-owners being brought in would be used to help finance the back end covering the expansion fees and anything else. But, the “public-private partnership” which the last stadium bid in the Indiana Senate was based around, would finance the stadium. The deal called for both public money and tax-based income to build the stadium after Ersal Ozdemir’s construction company would erect a hotel near the proposed stadium site.

It just can’t work. Indianapolis simply can’t contribute the amount of money needed right now. So where do you go?

Build it in Westfield and they will come?

Westfield, Indiana is booming. Located north-west of downtown Indianapolis, the city of Westfield began a steady boom once Grand Park was opened in 2014. Since then, the venue has hosted numerous youth tournaments. It hosted the US Open Cup match for then Indy Eleven NPSL and has now begun to host Indianapolis Colts training camp. With easy parking, multiple fields, and a youth every area it could be a great place to build a soccer-specific stadium (even more so considering that Westfield might be able to chip in more with public money).

Westfield and Indianapolis are Russia and Rhode Island

When you begin to compare the populations of Indianapolis and Westfield, however, you begin to understand why the team, outside of the obvious reason, want to keep the stadium inside of I-465. Indianapolis (according to the latest Census) has a population around 850 thousand. Westfield, however, has less than 50 thousand. The Hispanic population, which is a coveted population for most soccer teams in the United States, is 77 thousand in Indianapolis compared to a little more than 1,700 hundred in Westfield. The trend continues. Indianapolis is a large city getting larger every day.

One of the long-running issues for Indianapolis when it does come to public money, generally speaking, is that their income tax only applies to residents of Indianapolis. If you don’t live in Indianapolis but do travel in for work, you aren’t subject to their income tax. Some cities do tax those who travel into the city for work, but Indianapolis only collects income tax from someone who lives in the city. This has led to a struggle for money to help roads, and in this case, there’s not enough money to put towards another stadium in the city.

Why Westfield could work

Westfield doesn’t have the population that Indianapolis. There probably isn’t a city in the state that will ever have the population. The positives are that Westfield does bring out families and more importantly – the youth. Recently in an Instagram Live video, Indy Eleven head coach Martin Rennie was speaking at an event in Carmel. During his speech, he talked about the team’s desire to get involved in communities more and help not only grow the team, the league, but the sport in the state.

Indy Eleven wouldn’t come into Westfield needing to bear the weight of the growth of the sport with the already existing youth soccer movement but a soccer-specific stadium built off or near Grand Park would give another push for the local economy but a stamp on the youth soccer in the area. It is generally unknown about what if any financial assistance that Indy would get from the city of Westfield but according to another US Census Westfield beats the average income boosting a higher average of salaries at 70 thousand to 200 thousand.

With that amount of money among its residents and the youth soccer involved it can be seen as a benefit for both team and city that there is expendable income in the surrounding area.

Westfield isn’t Indianapolis

Yes. Westfield isn’t Indianapolis and vice versa. It won’t ever be. Indianapolis is and should be the goal for a site of a soccer-specific stadium. The location is better in Indianapolis. The environment is better in Indianapolis. The demographics line up with what you want for your soccer-specific stadium to thrive. Everything about Indianapolis has a stadium site is perfect. Indianapolis just can’t do it right now the way the team wants it.

If Indy Eleven desire to explore other options besides Indianapolis, Westfield may not be out of the question. The city is young, upcoming, not horribly out of the way, and a great clean landscape away from the hazards of life in the shadows of the Colts and Pacers. If nothing else, Westfield isn’t a door you completely shut but rather leave open to maybe let a nice breeze come in.