MLS commissioner Don Garber cools talks of expansion to Indianapolis

COLUMBUS, Ohio — MLS commissioner Don Garber dumped a bucket of cold water on Indianapolis MLS expansion discussions Wednesday night. The longtime league executive concluded his opening remarks by stating once San Diego is added in 2025, "it’s going to be the end of expansion for a period of time until we’re ready to expand again."

The timing of the announcement may have seemed a bit peculiar considering Indianapolis mayor Joe Hogsett was invited to this week's MLS All-Star festivities to pitch the city's vision for an MLS expansion team. But, Garber said, this is a process and while Indianapolis has done "everything right" so far, they're still in the initial stages.

"They are following the playbook," he added. "This is a process. It takes time. These are teams that require a whole lot of constituencies to come together, from ownership to city leaders to other fans and partners, and we're very much in the beginning of the process."

At no point did Garber shut the door on future expansion, nor did he discount Indianapolis' candidacy for an MLS team (he and other league executives said quite the opposite, in fact).

It's just not the right time for MLS to expand beyond 30 teams.

"We love the city," Garber said. "We love the support from the city leaders and from the state. We think there's an interesting ownership dynamic. 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."

Let's dive into what we know and what we learned from the past few days in Columbus, Ohio.

Garber: MLS has no current plans to expand past 30 teams

Major League Soccer has added 20 teams over the past 25 years, with the recent additions of St. Louis (2023) and San Diego (2025) bringing the league to 30 teams. It's a time of unparalleled growth for the sport in America and while MLS has been at the forefront, maintaining that momentum does not necessarily mean adding new teams.

"Growth can never stop," said Taylor Twellman, lead MLS analyst for Apple TV.

"That depends on how you define growth," he continued, citing roster size and other rule changes that would expand the game. "But there's always going to be room for growth. If you don't grow, you're going to become stale."

That being said, 32 has been the figure referenced by MLS executives when discussing a potential target number of teams (that's the same number of teams as the NFL) and, again, Garber left open the possibility of future expansion.

FC Dallas owner and Kansas City Chiefs CEO Clark Hunt said the league has reached a point of “pretty good maturity” after rapidly expanding over the past 20-25 years, but they have “definitely not” ruled out the possibility of expanding in the future.

“I think it’s likely down the road that we’ll consider expansion again,” Hunt said. “And clearly a city like Indianapolis, which is a proven sports town, would have to be a great candidate.”

It's just a matter of when.

Indianapolis still a great fit, doing the right things

The week's overarching theme was that Indianapolis remains a strong candidate for an MLS expansion team. It's a sports-crazed market with a group of investors who are genuinely interested in joining the league — the importance of Hogsett's appearance this week and the involvement of Tom Glick with the investment cannot be overstated — and is making progress on funding of a new, soccer-specific stadium.

"It's a soccer hotbed and it always has been with the youth," Twellman said.

"Everyone always thinks of Indiana as the basketball state and all that — I think we're understating how good the soccer is there. Indy Eleven has proven that (with its run to the U.S. Open Cup semifinals)," he continued. "You put a stadium downtown and that thing is cooking with gas."

Indianapolis would also join the league with built-in rivals in St. Louis, Cincinnati and Chicago (plus Columbus a little farther east and Kansas City to the west).

"I think there’s an advantage to having teams close by from a rivalry standpoint," Hunt said. "It allows fans to drive to away games, which only adds to the atmosphere of those games."

MLS expansion process is about timing

The United States hosting the 2026 World Cup presents another unique wrinkle for Indianapolis' bid for an expansion team.

San Diego FC owner Tom Penn described the event as a potential game-changer, presenting the potential to raise franchise values, which will drive expansion fees. Asked what it might cost for an expansion fee after San Diego paid $500 million to join, Garber smirked and replied: "more than $500 million."

With that in mind, it would make sense for the league to hold off a couple years before adding a 31st (and 32nd) team.

"I don't know if it is going to be as opportunity-driven as one market has their act totally together, so let's go," Penn said. "I think the league is very thoughtful about when the right time is and what appropriate investment it would take."

Things can still change in a hurry

In the coming weeks, the city will ask the Indiana State Budget committee to approve funding measures, including state tax dollars, for a soccer-specific stadium at the Indianapolis heliport site. Once that funding is secured, they can begin designing a stadium and take more substantive steps towards completing the application for an MLS expansion team.

MLS executives said Wednesday afternoon it helps when a team has a soccer-specific stadium already built (or nearing completion) or at least has plans in place. San Diego, for instance, had plans to play in San Diego State's new soccer-specific stadium by the time it applied for an expansion team a few years ago.

So what happens if Indianapolis secures funding and completes designs for its new stadium by year's end?

"If there's a good market for us to expand in and if that market makes sense, if we have the right owner and the right stadium plan," Garber said, "I think like any league, we would strongly consider expanding beyond the 30 teams we have now."

Final thoughts

In listening back to Garber's comments and piecing them together with everything else we heard during the week, I still think it's a matter of when, not if Indianapolis adds an MLS team. By all accounts, the city put its best foot forward in Columbus and has drawn positive reviews from MLS executives and owners.

But even as the stars (seemingly) begin to align, the timing must be right for MLS and considering how much money it stands to gain by waiting (and cutting down the risk of expanding too much too quickly), the league may still be a few years away from moving to Indianapolis.

Follow Brian Haenchen on Twitter at @Brian_Haenchen .

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: MLS commissioner Don Garber cools talks of expansion to Indianapolis