Indy Eleven home ‘Eleven Park’ in the works

Article posted by Coliseum, July 1^st, 2022

Image: Indy Eleven & USL

It looks like the Indy Eleven soccer team will finally get its own home stadium. A $1 billion 18-acre ‘Eleven Park’ complex is in the works on the Western border of downtown Indianapolis (US).

Construction for ‘Eleven Park’ could begin in early 2023 and would likely be complete by Spring of 2025.

‘Fox59.com’ stated that a subsidiary of the real estate development firm Keystone Corp. purchased the Diamond Chain manufacturing site at 402 Kentucky Avenue last October.

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The Indy Eleven is an American professional soccer team based in Indianapolis, Indiana (US). Founded in 2013, the team made its debut in the North American Soccer League in 2014, before moving to the United Soccer League in 2018.

The 12,111-capacity IU Michael A. Carroll Track & Soccer Stadium is a 12,100-seat soccer and track and field stadium located in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. It is the home of the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis Jaguars track and field and soccer teams. It was also the original home of the Indy Eleven and presently serves as their temporary residence.

The 20,000-capacity ‘Eleven Park’ is a proposed soccer-specific stadium to be constructed at the former site of the Diamond Chain Company factory in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. It would be the home of the Indy Eleven, a USL Championship team currently playing at the IU Michael A. Carroll Track & Soccer Stadium.

‘Fox59.com’ further stated that it’ll be centered between some of the City’s (Indianapolis) major sports venues, the 12,230-capacity Victory Field and the 70,000-capacity Lucas Oil Stadium. It’s one of the big reasons the site was chosen.

Noted Indy Eleven CEO Greg Stremlaw, “You’re not just coming to the stadium. You’re able to shop, play and eat before, during and after the game, so it’s a full-fledged experience.”

Apartments, a hotel, office building, and retail space will be built along with a 20,000-seat soccer stadium.

The project would be a public-private partnership with the City and the State taking the lead on financing. The City and State financing would apply mainly to the stadium, with Keystone Corp. developing the retail space, office building, hotel, and apartments.

The City of Indianapolis is expected to provide tax incentives or other financing to help fill gaps in funding.

The original price tag was $550 million but has jumped to over $1 billion due to inflation and design changes.

Added Stremlaw, “When we’re talking about retail space and we’re talking about hotels or commercial office spaces, a number of those components have grown.”

The City of Indianapolis Capital Improvement Board (CIB) would own the ‘Eleven Park’ Stadium, while Indy Eleven would lease and operate the venue.

While conceptual renderings have been released in the past, designs for what the complex will look like are expected to be released in the coming months.

Indy Eleven’s Owner and Chairman Ersal Ozdemir (also owner of Keystone Corp.) informed that the ‘Eleven Park’ could also be used for concerts too large for the 6,000-capacity TCU Amphitheater at White River State Park or too small for the Lucas Oil Stadium – “We have been working diligently for the last several years to secure a large area of land downtown for ‘Eleven Park’, and with our prime location now secured we are eager to take the next steps for this groundbreaking development.”

Since the team started playing in 2014, home games have been held at the IU Michael A. Carroll Track & Soccer Stadium on the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) campus. The team also played at the Lucas Oil Stadium from 2018 to 2020.

Commented Chris Wakefield with the Brickyard Battalion (an independent not-for-profit organization and Indy Eleven’s independent supporters group), “It’s kind of like when you buy that first house as a married couple and it’s your starter home. Now we’re going into our big big home.”

Wakefield said he feels the team and the fans have earned the right to have something of their own – “That’s the word that means the most to us, ‘permanency’. We’re here now, we know we’re here now and it doesn’t matter where we were going to be we just wanted someplace permanent.”

The facility will also be designed to host soccer, lacrosse, football, rugby, and field hockey events for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA), according to a release from Indy Eleven.

William Stark with the Brickyard Battalion put in, “This is a step forward into the future of Indiana soccer. We’ll always have a place. We’ll always have someone there to play.”

The team was founded in 2013 as part of the North American Soccer League. It joined the United Soccer League in 2018.

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