An effort to name the area surrounding Miller-Showers Park the “Stadium District” was postponed at a City Council meeting Tuesday after concerns from the community.
Councilmembers and the public shared their uneasiness about residential impact and the potential negative effects on neighborhoods inside the proposed district.
Resolution 2025-18 was co-sponsored by council president Hopi Stosberg and Jane Kupersmith, the director of economic and sustainable development for the city of Bloomington.
Stosberg said she was approached last year by Christopher Emge, senior director of government and community relations of the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce about the concept of naming the area the Stadium District to give business owners a way to clearly identify where they’re located.
The district spans from 13th Street north to Clubhouse Drive and from about Dunn Street west to Kinser Pike. It includes commercial and mixed-use student housing and residential areas.
The initial footprint of the district was smaller, but it was expanded to allow more businesses within the area the opportunity to use the name.
Kupersmith said the legislation seeks to establish a distinct identity in the north side area that serves as a gateway to Bloomington.
“Naming a thing is a powerful action,” Kupersmith said. “This action in particular will strengthen Bloomington’s identity as a college town. It’s not the only part of our identify, but it's a key piece of what makes Bloomington who we are.”
Stosberg said the potential name is not a “salute to IU,” rather the reality of the space that houses the university’s large sporting facilities. The identification is intended to support businesses in nearby areas that attract thousands of people each year, she said.
Stosberg said she imagined Airbnbs and restaurants in the area benefiting from the marketing tool.
She said the name would not negate any other names associated with the area, including neighborhoods or parks.
Kupersmith added that nothing would be required of residents if they didn’t want to do anything with the label. The residential areas were included for small apartment buildings or rental units to potentially use the stadium district name for marketing in addition to their neighborhood name.
Kupersmith said neighborhood associations weren’t directly contacted because the intention for renaming was primarily for commercial properties.
“We included the residential areas because in our view, which people may or may not agree with, it was not harmful to include them because it was up to them whether they would use it in the future or not and it's so primarily focused on the commercial,” Kupersmith said.
Casey Green, a resident of the Maple Heights neighborhood, said she’s seen movement toward overriding the character of Bloomington with IU’s. She said she believes naming it the Stadium District would cause a loss of “uniqueness.”
“The stadium is going to be there. People are going to live near the stadium no matter what,” Green said. “We don't need to call it that and make that our only point of personality. Especially, given the news these days, I don’t believe we want to be aligning as a neighborhood with IU’s headlines. We don't want to be associated with that, a lot of us don't.”
Emge said this was a no-cost proposal that could harness IU Athletics to help businesses along that corridor.
“I feel for the residents. I don't want to ruin any neighborhoods with this,” Emge said. “Residents are what make it, but this is not what this is about right now. This is about businesses and business investments. So, let's just sort of think about that as we move forward.”
Sarah Alexander is another Maple Heights resident. Her home is included in the northeast half of the neighborhood, part of the proposed district, and she requested the council vote no on the resolution.
“I object to the connection of this residential area to the stadium in any way,” Alexander said. “The only result of such a connection would be the further encouragement of short-term rentals. Such properties sit empty most of the year, creating hollowed out neighborhoods where it is impossible to foster relationships with the people with whom we should be able to build actual physical communities.”
Councilmember Dave Rollo asked how difficult it would be to exclude neighborhoods from the district.
Kupersmith said she thinks a contiguous district is necessary. However, she said it would not be difficult to remove sections in the residential area from the map.
Kupersmith, a previous Maple Heights resident, said the fact that residents of the area felt marginalized and not supported by the resolution was “not great.”
“The map should be narrowed to focus more deliberately on the commercial areas,” Kupersmith said. “That's what this is about.”
The motion to postpone was unanimously passed 6-0 with councilmembers Ruff, Flaherty and Rosenbarger absent from the vote. The resolution will be revisited at the next regular session Oct. 22.
