Colts, Indianapolis agree on new stadium lease

INDIANAPOLIS -- The Indianapolis Colts have agreed to a new lease with the city that will keep the team in Indianapolis -- and a new stadium -- for at least the next 30 years.\n"We are pleased to have reached agreement on all issues with the CIB (Capital Improvement Board) related to the lease and look forward to the successful completion of all other unfinished agreements," Colts owner Jim Irsay said in a statement Tuesday.\nDemolition already has started near the downtown RCA Dome to make room for a planned 63,000-seat retractable-roof stadium that is expected to be finished in time for the start of the 2008 season. The stadium is projected to cost up to $700 million.\nThe Colts will play in the RCA Dome, their home since the team relocated from Baltimore in 1984, until the new stadium is completed.\nFred Glass, president of the Capital Improvement Board, said the Colts and the city reached a final lease \nagreement late Tuesday morning, which he forwarded to Mayor Bart Peterson. He said it confirms the bargain they made in December that would keep the Colts in Indianapolis for the next three decades.\n"We got the Colts here lock, stock and barrel for 30 years," Glass said. "They're happy, we're happy, and that's the basis of a good deal."\nThe Associated Press left a message with Peterson's office seeking comment. Colts spokeswoman Myra Borshoff Cook said Irsay would have no further comment.\nThe state still needs to get a development agreement done before work on the new stadium begins, Glass said.\nThe Colts open their regular season Sept. 11 at Baltimore. Coach Tony Dungy was pleased by the news.\n"That's fantastic," he said Tuesday. "Knowing we weren't going to move was No. 1 but it's a big relief to say that we're on track and the clock is ticking on a new stadium. That's phenomenal news."\nGroundbreaking had been planned by Aug. 1, but negotiations had been delayed, in part by disagreement over a $3 ticket tax the city and team oppose but the state Legislature authorized. The ticket tax is not included in the 85-page agreement reached Tuesday.\nSeveral counties surrounding Indianapolis have approved a 1 percent food and beverage tax, and Marion County raised its tax from 1 percent to 2 percent to help fund the project. The counties will keep half the money raised by the tax with the rest going toward the stadium project.