INDIANAPOLIS — The Indianapolis Colts have agreed to a new lease with the city that will keep the team in Indianapolis for at least the next 30 years and give it a new stadium.‘‘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.Demolition 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.The Colts will play in the RCA Dome, their home since the team relocated from Baltimore in 1984, until the new stadium is completed.Fred Glass, president of the Capital Improvement Board, said the Colts and the city reached a final lease agreement late Tuesday morning, which he forwarded to Mayor Bart Peterson. Glass said it confirms the bargain they made in December that would keep the Colts in Indianapolis for the next three decades.‘‘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.’’
Deputy Mayor Steve Campbell said the agreement is an another hurdle cleared in the project’s development.
‘‘This is an important step forward for the entire project,’’ Campbell said.
Colts spokeswoman Myra Borshoff Cook said Irsay would have no further comment.
The state still needs to get a development agreement done before work on the new stadium begins, Glass said.
The Colts open their regular season Sept. 11 at Baltimore. Coach Tony Dungy was pleased by the news.
‘‘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.’’
Groundbreaking 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.
Several 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.
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