MLS to Indy Effort Hits Wall - Heliport Stadium Dead?

Following legal challanges about Heliport Sale to the City, lack of funding from the state, Indianapolis' effort to bring a MLS side to the Circle City has hit a wall.

News broke late last yesterday from Russ McQuaid at Fox59/CBS4, that the proposed MLS stadium deal on the Heliport site is dead.

From the outside looking in, we all knew it was relativley quiet on the MLS front. After a very aggressive in 2024 where the City dominated headlines, they increasingly became radio silent. I knew something was going on behind the scences - finally we have something to confirm it.

The first clue in 2026 hinting at something going on was the Heliport’s delayed closure. After being announced on Nov 14th the closure of the Heliport to be Dec 15th - the FAA recieved 2 formal requests to reconsider and kept the location up until after public comment ends on February 12th. Led by Indiana AG Todd Rokita and Indy Eleven Co-Owner Chuck Surack.

While Rokita’s appeal was a politicaly motivated attack against Indianapolis, Surack’s involvment comes from his ownership of Sweet Helicopter. Surack has used Sweet Helicopter to fly in and out of the Heliport in the past and even offered to buy the site for more than what the city agreed to sell to the Simon’s. It also was confirmed Surack’s role at Indy Eleven was purely about the Heliprot. Stating, “I got involved honestly, because I was trying to save the Heliport many years ago”.

Surack went on to say that the proposed Heliport Site is also dead in the water. Surack talked with an unnamed executive about the stadium deal, saying:

just said, ‘The stadium deal is dead.’ And I think that’s partly because they couldn’t get money from the state of Indiana, so on and so forth. The governor point-blank told me, ‘It didn’t pencil,’ between the half a billion or so for a stadium and roughly the same or a little bit more for the franchise, it was hard for them to rationalize it.

While the State appears to like the idea of MLS coming to Indiana, they did not support the financial plan. There is also the fact the State appears to be focusing their efforts to bring the Chicago Bears to Gary Indiana. In a state with shrinking budgets, as long as the Bears continue to threating with a move to Gary, Indy’s effort to MLS appears to be on the back burner.

Indianapolis was asking for roughly $250 million to help build the stadium in their $500 million total ask, there was also issue with the rumored ownership group still not coming forward. We finally got confirmation about the suspected ownership group.

In response to a request for comment from FOX59/CBS4, Pacers Sports & Entertainment quoted CEO Mel Raines, “At the city’s request, we are part of conversations about Indianapolis’ pursuit of bringing a Major League Soccer team downtown. While these discussions are ongoing, we are committed to working with our elected leaders to explore this opportunity. As we have for decades, we will support the city and state to amplify our reputation as a world-class sports, event and entertainment destination.”

The Simon Family and Pacers Sports & Entertainment were working with the Mayor of Indianapolis to bring MLS to Downtown.

While this article confirmed a lot of things we had already known but this is mainly from Chuck Surack’s point of view. With this and Ersal’s interview with IndyStar, the two appear to be getting their perspective out there. In both articles - the Diamon Chain Site for Eleven Park - was their prefered location for a soccer stadium. No shocker there. But it was news both said it as the Indy Eleven have yet to make an announcement on any of their intentions since Eleven Park deal collapsed.

In these two articles we have learned that the MLS stadium effort isn’t going well (no friends in the statehouse), and Indy Eleven Ownership are insistent on the Diamond Chain Site (which isn’t politcally viable at the moment either). All to say, I don’t see a stadium being built in Indianapolis for at least a couple of years once Mayor Hogsett leaves. Nor do I see a MLS relocation happening.