A YouTuber I watch is soccer loving Hoosier. Would Indy support an MLS team?

I don’t see why they couldn’t. The market is decent sized and I’d doubt a club there would negatively impact Chicago, Columbus, or Cincinnati.

Yeah, the markets seems big enough, and the geography works.

Pretty much any top 35 market can support a professional sports franchise. It’s just a matter of a facility to play in and an ownership group to pay the bills.

There just seems to be some markets that are tricky because they are in close proximity to another:

San Francisco & Sacramento — except for NBA, the Bay franchises claim Sac town as part of their sphere

Tampa & Orlando —
DC & Baltimore — (only the “cold” rivalries in MLB & NFL exist)
Raleigh & Charlotte —
Nashville & Memphis —
San Antonio & Austin —
Cleveland/Cincinnati & Columbus — if you’re in the 1st 2, you aren’t in the 3rd (except MLS where Cincinnati’s minor league team was so well followed, they couldn’t be ignored)

Then there’s Hartford— everyone skips over them because it’s more profitable to be in Boston and NYC than a smaller market wedged in between.

(09-15-2026 06:40 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Pretty much any top 35 market can support a professional sports franchise. It’s just a matter of a facility to play in and an ownership group to pay the bills.

Indy Eleven's ownership can't afford their own stadium without significant help from the public. If MLS comes to town it will likely mean the death of Indy Eleven, as the USL would require another 10% of whatever expansion fee MLS charges to be able to release the Induly Eleven branding.

The fastest path for getting MLS in Indy would be to have the Colts' ownership involved and have them play at Lucas Oil, even if only temporarily. A MLS team would probably need their own stadium as there are significant demands on Lucas Oil stadium during the new MLS calendar.

Everybody in Indy now wants to go watch Caitlin Clark and the Fever, or Tyreese Halliburton and the Pacers. Thats pretty much year round basketball. There are no fans left to go watch a new MLS team.

(09-18-2026 03:24 PM)goofus Wrote:  Everybody in Indy now wants to go watch Caitlin Clark and the Fever, or Tyreese Halliburton and the Pacers. Thats pretty much year round basketball. There are no fans left to go watch a new MLS team.

Indy Eleven averages about 8,600 fans per game.

(09-18-2026 05:24 PM)chargeradio Wrote:  

(09-18-2026 03:24 PM)goofus Wrote:  Everybody in Indy now wants to go watch Caitlin Clark and the Fever, or Tyreese Halliburton and the Pacers. Thats pretty much year round basketball. There are no fans left to go watch a new MLS team.

Indy Eleven averages about 8,600 fans per game.

Correct. Unfortunately, they are on like year 11 or 12 of their search for public stadium financing. It hasn't gone in their favor at all since the Simons, the Pacers owners, seem to get funds for the Fieldhouse every six or so years.

(09-18-2026 05:24 PM)chargeradio Wrote:  

(09-18-2026 03:24 PM)goofus Wrote:  Everybody in Indy now wants to go watch Caitlin Clark and the Fever, or Tyreese Halliburton and the Pacers. Thats pretty much year round basketball. There are no fans left to go watch a new MLS team.

Indy Eleven averages about 8,600 fans per game.

Louisville City averages 9,540 and already has an MLS quality, soccer-specific stadium (but we're not likely to get a team either).