You can stop wondering about who exactly is going to be asked to pay what in the revised bill to provide stadium renovations for Indy Eleven, because it ain’t happening, not this year anyway, reports the Indianapolis Star’s Mark Alesia:
A bill to renovate IUPUI’s Carroll Stadium for the North American Soccer League team didn’t make it through a conference committee on the last day of the legislative session.
“We just couldn’t get all the parties on the same page,” said the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Todd Huston, R-Fishers. “Everybody was acting in good faith, willing to get something done. But it wasn’t going to work out this session.
“We were defining contributions and getting the right language with the state, IU, the team, the city. There were too many details from a financial standpoint for each of the parties. Honestly, we just ran out of time to nail everything down.”
That’s pretty definitely code for “nobody was happy with how much they were expected to pay,” but it’s also a clear signal that everyone involved is going to work on this some more and come back for next year’s session with an actual plan. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, if it means that the question of whether a minor-league soccer team really needs a $60 million stadium renovation, at least $20 million of it paid by taxpayers, gets a fair hearing in a public forum. If it just means everyone goes behind closed doors for a few months and hammers things out, less so. Mark Alesia, we’re counting on you to make sure it’s the former.
(And before anyone says anything: Yes, Indy Eleven has dreams of being an MLS franchise, and MLS commissioner Don Garber announced last week that the league would likely announce more expansion teams soon, bringing it to 28 franchises. That doesn’t mean that Indianapolis would necessarily get a team, but it’s another conversation piece to throw in the conversation hopper.)