Lawmakers Pass Amended Indy Eleven Stadium Legislation

State lawmakers changed the conditions Monday for the Indy Eleven soccer team’s ability to build a new stadium and collect tax revenue from the area around it.

The House Ways and Means Committee unanimously passed an amended bill that removes a requirement that Indianapolis have a Major League Soccer franchise before the Eleven may collect taxes from the stadium district.

The new language now states the team must only be in a professional league, which it is.

Committee co-chair Todd Huston says this gives the state more flexibility.

“To meet the Major League Soccer requirements, they want a stadium and at the end of the day, they want to see a stadium in process,” Huston says. “It may be that the stadium is in process while the team is under a different league.”

The previous version of the bill that passed out of the Senate required Indy Eleven to become an MLS team within three years. But the MLS’s public statements, which state that its next two preferred expansion locations are St. Louis and Sacramento, make that unlikely.