What chance does Indianapolis have to land a Major League Soccer team?

When Mayor Joe Hogsett announced plans to bring a Major League Soccer team to Indianapolis this spring there was a lot of excitement, and even more questions.

What does this mean for Indy Eleven? Where would a stadium be built, and would the city support it? And what are the chances of landing a team?

WFYI’s Samantha Horton talked with Patrick Rishe, director of the Sports Business program at Washington University in St. Louis, where MLS recently added a team. He discussed the process of MLS expansion, and what it could look like for Indianapolis.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Samatha Horton: ​​So the teams that are looking to get an MLS expansion, where does the process start? Just walk me through some of the steps there.

Patrick Rishe: Major League Soccer and really any professional sports league. They're going to look at three factors. Who is the ownership group? What kind of resources do they have? What plan do they have in place? And not that it's a must, but are they local?

Horton: Indianapolis is looking at location. They have a spot here in the city that they see as a premium place to have a stadium. Can you talk about that, does the location of a stadium matter?

Rishe: Location absolutely matters in any sport, but in particular Major League Soccer, because Major League Soccer has tried to do their best to make sure that venues are closer to the city, sometimes in downtown, many times in downtown.

Part of that is just because of the sport, if you look at the demographics of the fan base, it does trend younger than most of the other major sports leagues. So because of that, you want to bring people into the city. You want to make it part of the social fabric of the community.

One of the problems with all these sports venues that are out in the suburbs and out in the counties across America, maybe you lose that piece of it. You lose the sense of bringing people together. And you could argue, probably quite strongly, that soccer is the most diverse fan base of all of the sports leagues here in the U.S. It's certainly true globally.

If you have a venue plan, and part of that plan is building it in downtown, that's going to appeal quite strongly to Major League Soccer.

Horton: In Indianapolis we already have Indy Eleven, the minor league team. Is it reasonable for both teams to be able to coexist?

Rishe: That is going to be challenging, to be perfectly honest, not saying that it can't be done. I have to look more carefully to see if there is an example of that, and in the case of minor league soccer or USL, United Soccer League, the league that Indy Eleven is in well... in St. Louis, if we use that as a case example, they did have a USL team, and that team went away when the Major League Soccer invited St. Louis to join their league. I think that would be very challenging, not impossible, but challenging.

Horton: Indianapolis officials are excited, seeing this as something they're hoping to see happen in the near future. I know MLS officials were a little more, on a more cautious approach, it seemed like. Can you talk about what the likelihood is that the league expands after San Diego joins as the 30th team next year?

Rishe: The fact that Indianapolis, to my understanding, is kind of in an exclusive negotiating period right now with Major League Soccer, that's usually a pretty good indication that the league is very receptive. And moving forward, just have to finish crossing all the t's and dotting the i's. I don't think that there's necessarily, there's not a rush, but there's also not a reason to be slow if all the elements are in place.

So if the ownership group is there, if they have a plan for a stadium, location, funding, and if they can prove to Major League Soccer that the support from the fans in the corporate community will be there, then all of those would leave Major League Soccer to say ‘yes’ we will embrace whatever city meets those criteria.

I think one of the interesting things that is an intangible that makes Indianapolis attractive is not only the fact that Indianapolis is well known as an event town, but beyond that you're in such a great regional pocket where you've got Columbus, Cincinnati, Chicago, Nashville, St. Louis, all of these cities are so close and equidistant, roughly from Indianapolis, that's really exciting in terms of building these regional rivalries.

Horton: Well, Patrick, thank you so much for your time. I appreciate speaking with you.

Rishe: Thank you.