When last we visited with Indy Eleven owner president Peter Wilt back in May, he was cursing the Indiana state legislature for foiling his plan to build a new stadium with other people’s money, and vowing that he’ll be back, this isn’t over! Now, six months later … he’ll still be back, and this still isn’t over!
Wilt said the team remains hamstrung by its makeshift home at IUPUI’s Carroll Stadium on the far-west side of downtown, which was built in 1982 for track and field events.
“It doesn’t give you long-term hope or opportunities for large success,” Wilt said. “We’re open to all thoughts, but renovation of Carroll Stadium doesn’t seem to be a workable solution for the team.”…
“It doesn’t even have concourses where people can take shelter in case of rain,” Wilt said. “We had to completely evacuate the stadium twice this year when we had storms roll through.”
Yeah, that doesn’t sound optimal. You know what you might want to do, then? Build a roof. Or, hell, take out a loan and build a new stadium yourself, instead of a ticket tax scheme that wouldn’t have come close to paying off the public’s costs.
Anyway, this mostly seems to be a preemptive attempt to walk back Wilt’s earlier comments that he’d consider renovating the existing stadium, because now that everything is back on the table, he wants a new stadium, dammit. But he’s open to all thoughts — except for those involving renovation or paying for a new stadium himself, because you don’t get “large success” that way.
What a tough situation for Wilt. He is awesome at every aspect of running a soccer team except corporate ass-kissing. Because the top priority of every MLS team is kissing ass, he can’t get a job running a team. So he’s left to work for the rich guy in Indy who is probably only going to keep this team operating if he can get a stadium built for no money. (None of his money, at least.) I guess the good thing is if you’re gonna be stuck in that situation there’s no better place than Indy.
Small point of clarification, but an important one- Wilt (unless something changed very recently) is the President of Indy Eleven, the first sentence here states he is the owner. The owner of the team, the one Wilt is asking for all of this money for on behalf of, is Ersal Ozdemir.
Yes, sorry, mistyped. This is now corrected.