Another Blast From The Past
I was pleasantly surprised to see this photo as one in a slideshow attached to this Indianapolis Star story about the return of pro soccer to Central Indiana today.
(Yep, that’s me, in early 1998, pointing out the place on the jerseys of Mark Phillips and Steve Weiger where we hoped to put a sponsor logo that never panned out. Man, I was skinny then.)
Nine years after the Indiana Blast played its final game (in the PDL, after five years in the then-A-League and two before that in the D3 Pro League), someone’s going to give pro soccer in Indianapolis another shot. Hopefully my man Peter Wilt, who’s been heading up the feasibility study on this thing, will get to run the show. If he does, it has a much better chance of success than the Blast did, if for no other reason than Peter understands that tickets don’t just sell themselves.
A lot has changed, both in Indianapolis and American soccer, since I left the Blast in July 2000. (The reporter who wrote this particular story isn’t one of them – David Woods covered us a bit back in the day.) The viability of professional soccer – even at lower levels – is much less of a crapshoot than it was then. Some franchises have shown they can get fans excited for a local team, even if it doesn’t play at the highest level. And seemingly every lower-level team can play the “We hope to be in MLS one day” card – as this group is apparently doing, too.
I could write a book (which no one would read) about everything we did wrong with the Blast. I’ve told Peter many of these things (not that he needed my advice to avoid them, many of them were basic), and I figure they will be much more professionally-run and successful than we were (assuming they’re better funded than we were, which they’d almost have to be).
Long-term, everything hinges on them finding a good place to play, I feel. Kuntz Stadium (our old haunt) was barely adequate in 1999, and the other potential temporary venues have their issues. If they have as much trouble as we had acquiring land and funding for a soccer-specific stadium, they’ll be added to the (short, but distinguished) list that includes the Blast, the Twisters and the Daredevils, all of whom came and went in fairly short order. (Note: this unscientific poll on the Indianapolis Business Journal‘s site shows some support, but an alarming percentage of people who don’t see themselves going to games.)
So good luck, PW. I’m pulling for you.
Just, please, please, please, don’t call the team “Racing Indianapolis.” I beg of you.
Tags: good luck, Indianapolis, NASL, soccer
January 15th, 2013 at 6:59 pm
I saw that article today too! Will be interested to see what develops, particularly if they build a new stadium (or Arena for the Red Bull fans). Our team here in San Antonio played its first season in a high school football stadium (yes, stadium, this is Texas). Will open Toyota Field stadium this spring (http://www.toyotafield.com/) for second season.
New soccer stadium in downtown Indy would be fun to see happen (perhaps the old msa site?)
January 17th, 2013 at 12:39 pm
“Just, please, please, please, don’t call the team “Racing Indianapolis.””
Brickyard FC?
January 17th, 2013 at 12:52 pm
Going to guess the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corporation would have something to say about the use of the term “Brickyard,” at least in that city. There’s a building at Arizona State University affectionately (but not officially) called “The Brickyard,” but I’m going to guess that…well, hell, I’ll just check.
US Patent & Trademark Office reports that Brickyard Trademarks, Inc., with offices at 4790 West 16th Street Indianapolis, Indiana (want to guess what’s located there?) holds the trademark to “The Brickyard.”
They also hold “Brickyard Crossing” (the former Speedway Motel) and Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corporation owns “Brickyard 400″ (odd that NASCAR wouldn’t have that one, but, whatever).
Point being this (and I’m not a lawyer): any dispute about these sorts of things usually comes down to confusion in the marketplace. That’s why you get lawsuits and that’s why you bother to register things in the first place, to avoid that stuff. Given that, to Hoosiers (99% of the people likely to buy tickets to this team’s games), “Brickyard” means one thing and one thing only, tacking that onto a soccer team could reasonably be seen as causing confusion in the marketplace. At least to this layman.
It should be noted that no one currently holds “Racing Indianapolis,” “Indianapolis Majestic,” “Indianapolis Athletic,” (though there IS an “Indianapolis Athletic Club”, a downtown hotel/fitness club) “Indianapolis Speed” or “Indianapolis United” (the name of an apparently former youth club in suburban Fishers). “Majestic,” “Athletic,” “Speed” and “United” (all of which suck, by the way) are the choices in the Name The Team contest on the website. But they don’t have them. If someone wanted to, they could apply for all of them today and put the kibosh on the team’s efforts.
February 10th, 2013 at 6:39 pm
KT…I’d have read your book…least I could do since you read mine
February 17th, 2013 at 10:22 am
I was kidding about “Brickyard FC”, but why the hell not? Get IMS as a co-owner. Play exhibition games at the racetrack. Build a new SSS called “The Li’l Brickyard”.
Well, it’s still better than “Majestic,” “Athletic,” “Speed” or “United” (bleaugh).
And the supporter’s club? “The KICKyard”.
OK. I’m sorry. I’ll leave now…
February 17th, 2013 at 12:28 pm
“Get IMS as a co-owner” is like all those people who have said, all these years, that Disney or Mark Cuban or (insert name of rich man or big local corporation here) could just be convinced, just like that, to invest in a soccer team.
That would not fit with IMS’ long-established business strategy. In short, they wouldn’t be interested.
“Indianapolis Athletic Club” is another one I can’t see making it past the lawyers. A downtown hotel and ACTUAL Athletic Club uses that name. I used to date a girl who worked there, back in the day.