Smith: $82 million for an Indy Eleven stadium? Get real

So let me get this straight, Indy Eleven.

You want to build a stadium somewhere Downtown that costs $82 million? One that seats 18,500 people, doesn't have a roof and probably will be used only a few times a year for soccer, lacrosse and football? And you want taxpayers to help foot the bill if taxes from selling tickets to these events don't generate enough money?

Forgive me if I find this all a bit hard to swallow.

I believe that we will win as much as the next soccer-loving Hoosier. But come on!

According to the renderings for the proposed stadium that you released on Wednesday, the place will be a behemoth of a bird's nest. The stadium is huge. It's designed as an exotic castle for a sports team with the proven record of the Colts or Pacers — not a team that is just getting off the ground, playing a sport that our fellow Hoosiers are just starting to love.

So let's get real.

Indy Eleven has played one full season. And in that season, your boys in blue won seven matches. (I said one orginally, but was set straight by the Twittersphere.) Yes, it's excruciatingly difficult to build a successful soccer team from scratch, but it's still true.

It's also true that Indy Eleven brought in an impressive average of 10,450 fans per match for the first season. All 14 matches played at IUPUI's Carroll Stadium were sold out.

But not so fast. One season doesn't make the team a dynasty yet.

I don't say all of this to trash the Indy Eleven.

I went to two matches last season and loved watching the team play. The chanting by the Brickyard Battalion was nonstop and inspiring. One fan even got so excited that he fell out of the stands onto the field, refusing to lose his grip on his Indy Eleven flag on the way down.

More than that, though, it has been absolutely amazing to watch football-loving Hoosiers turn into futbol-loving Hoosiers.

The team had everything to do with the excitement about the World Cup and the insane turnout for a viewing party on Mass Ave. The same with the Indy Eleven's support for a neighborhood soccer league that started last summer.

I think it's safe to say that Indianapolis is in love with a new sport.

And honestly, the renderings of the proposed stadium are gorgeous. I understand the design is likely to change a bit, but as it stands, it's sleek and modern. It's a bold design, which is something we need more of in this city where we too often settle for the blandest of bland architecture.

But do we really need a new stadium in Indianapolis for the Indy Eleven? Can the team really not get by for another four or five years at Carroll Stadium? And if that happened, would that really kill the momentum of soccer adulation in Indianapolis?

I think not.

What the franchise is asking the Indiana General Assembly to do, to approve a bill that would make way for that beautiful $82 million stadium to be built somewhere Downtown, well, that's asking a lot. Too much.

There are hundreds of other things in this city — from crumbling neighborhoods looking for investment to building a viable transit system — that are more worthy of our tax dollars. The more we ask taxpayers to have skin in the game for luxury projects like building sports stadiums, the less likely they'll be to willingly dole out money for projects that we actually need.

The last thing Indianapolis needs now is another stadium. Let's talk again in 2020.

Contact Star columnist Erika D. Smith at (317) 444-6424, erika.smith@indystar.com, on Twitter at @erika_d_smith or at www.facebook.com/ErikaDSmith.Journalist.