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Most of the city and county council are expected to meet behind closed doors Wednesday afternoon with the man behind Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett’s effort to land a Major League Soccer franchise.
The 19-member Democratic caucus is scheduled to meet with longtime football executive Tom Glick this afternoon to hear his speech.
Denise Herd, private communications consultant for the Democratic caucus, confirmed “there is a meeting today between the caucus and Tom Glick,” but did not respond to IBJ’s follow-up questions regarding the time and the location or who initiated the meeting.
Glick did not respond to messages seeking comment Wednesday. Several councilors, including Majority Leader Maggie Lewis and Council President Vop Osili, also did not respond to calls or messages about the meeting. And Councilman Brian Mowery, who leads the Republican caucus, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Hogsett administration began talking with Glick in January to find potential investors for an MLS offering. City officials told IBJ that it is working to assemble a group of owners for the effort, which would likely be required to pay an MLS franchise fee of at least $500 million in addition to covering the costs of functioning of a team and contributing to the construction of the stadium. .
While he now serves as managing director of Charlotte, North Carolina-based Rockledge Sports Advisory LLC, a professional sports team consulting firm he founded in October, Glick has extensive experience in the world of soccer.
He was previously president of Tepper Sports & Entertainment, owner of MLS club Charlotte FC and the NFL’s Carolina Panthers. And he recently worked for Chelsea FC in the United Kingdom. Prior to his time at Tepper, Glick was chairman of New York City FC and chief commercial officer of Manchester City.
Glick’s caucus meeting comes less than 48 hours later the Democratic caucus met privately with representatives of the administration of Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett Monday evening to discuss details of the mayor’s MLS efforts, including the creation of a new tax district map to support stadium development.
This meeting included an overview of the city’s plan to build a state-owned and operated football stadium on an existing parking lot near Gainbridge Pavilion and a portion of the Downtown Indianapolis Heliport property adjoining the land. The proposed tax map includes more than 120 parcels on which state and local income taxes, food and beverage taxes, and several other taxes would be collected to cover debt service related to the development of a specific new stadium football.
Last month, the Hogsett administration’s warning to the council against meeting with Keystone officials came just two days before Hogsett met with MLS Commissioner Don Garber in New York. The city abruptly ended negotiations on the Eleven Park development in March.
In the letter, a copy of which IBJ obtained, a lawyer for the Hogsett administration warned the caucus against agreeing to hold a meeting with Keystone Group — developer of Eleven Park — warning that doing so could violate state law. the open door of the State.
This law generally prevents the majority of a government board or committee from meeting in private or without notice, although it allows party caucuses to meet in private, as long as members do not take official action .
Drinker of Faegre Attorney Scott Chinn said in the April 20 letter that the previous private caucus would have allowed the developer…Keystone Group…to bypass municipal processes by going directly to council, before negotiations with the city are complete.
Chinn, who represents the city in MLS negotiations, said that in addition to violating the state’s open door law, a caucus meeting with the developer would have amounted to Keystone “moving forward in the process to attract the formal attention of the Democratic caucus in order to influence the outcome of arrangements that are not yet mature.
