COLUMBUS, Ohio – Major League Soccer’s commissioner loves the city of Indianapolis and supports its bid for a team.
But commissioner Don Garber stressed Wednesday night that expansion was a “process” and the fast-growing league isn’t committed to specific timing.
In April, Mayor Joe Hogsett announced the city was seeking a new stadium for an MLS team. He zeroed in on a site on the southeast side of downtown, not far from Gainbridge Fieldhouse. The City-County Council approved a Professional Sports Development Area to raise money to fund development for the stadium and surrounding area.
The announcement left many stunned, as the city had previously approved a Professional Sports Development Area for a site sought by the Indy Eleven, a USL team.
Hogsett met with MLS officials in New York and returned to Indianapolis convinced the city was in line for another professional sports team. The meeting spurred his announcement in April.
This week, he traveled to Columbus, Ohio, the site of this year’s MLS All-Star Game. Hogsett attended events and continued to pitch Indy’s desire as a host city.
For now, at least, Garber appeared to downplay immediate expansion into the Indy market. The league recently added a pair of teams—St. Louis in 2023 and San Diego in 2025—to bring its total to 30. During his news conference Wednesday, Garber indicated expansion would stop there for the time being.
“It’s going to be the end of expansion for a period of time, until we’re ready to expand again,” Garber said. “So right now, there isn’t a specific plan to expand.”
While immediate expansion didn’t appear to be in the cards, Garber didn’t rule out adding teams down the road. He specifically mentioned Indianapolis during his news conference.
“But I know all of you many of you might have seen the mayor of Indianapolis that was here over the last couple of days. If there is a good market for us to expand in, if that market makes sense, if we have the right owner and the right stadium, like any league, we would consider strongly expanding beyond the 30 teams we have now,” he said.
“There is no specific timing in place,” Garber reiterated. “Mayor Hogsett was at one of our events last night. He came to New York and met with us in the league office. The folks at the state and other people around the city are very bullish about an MLS team in Indianapolis, but we’ve done this a lot. We’ve expanded by over 20 teams over the last 25 years.”
Garber said the league understands how to “manage the process” of adding expansion teams and voiced support for an Indy bid. He indicated the entry fee would be north of $500 million.
“We love the city. We love the support from the city leaders and from the state,” he said. “We think there’s interesting ownership dynamics. We like the location they’re talking about for the stadium. So, we’ll continue to work with them and see how it plays out.”
Garber wouldn’t provide specifics about a potential owner or ownership group for an Indy-based team.
MLS has seen explosive growth in recent years, Garber noted, a far cry from humble beginnings when the league had trouble hammering out a TV contract. The league is expected to break its attendance record this season by welcoming about 13 million fans.
Garber is particularly proud of MLS’ social media following, which has surpassed 100 million followers—a number he believes is in indication the league is reaching its target market.
Will Indianapolis play a role in expanding that reach? Only time will tell.
“I think they’re doing, so far, everything right. They’re following the playbook,” Garber said of Indy’s MLS ambitions. “This is a process, you know, it takes time. These are teams that require a whole lot of constituents to come together from ownership to city leaders and other partners, and we’re very much in the beginning of this process.”
