On October 2nd, the Vancouver Whitecaps played their first ever game in the newly renovated BC place writes Josh Hakala of Mlive.com.
In attendance at that game was Steve Apostolopoulos, president of Sports at the Silverdome and member of a group whose main goal is to bring an MLS franchise to the Pontiac stadium.
Apostolopoulos attended the game in Vancouver to take notes and learn from his experience there in the city and at BC Place. After his time there, Apostolopoulos regained a new sense of confidence on the possibilities of the MLS coming to the Silverdome.
“[BC Place] is like a mini-Silverdome,” he said. “After seeing that, I have no doubt that we can pull this off.”
According to Hakala, the renovation of BC Place cost more than $500 million dollars which in turn modernized the stadium for soccer use. The renovations included everything from the luxury suites to moving the seating closer to the field. There was also a change to the roof which saw a newly installed retractable roof that was cable supported and retracted from the center.
Now even though the renovation plans for the Silverdome don’t include a retractable roof, they are still pretty impressive and exciting. For instance, the dome itself would be entirely removed. The interior of the stadium would then be divided into two halves. On the top portion of the stadium (which would currently consist of the upper deck of the Silverdome) the open air soccer stadium would sit with a capacity of around 30,000 seats. Below the soccer field there would be two separate venues. On one side there would be a multi purpose 20,000 seat arena capable of housing basketball or hockey. On the other side there would be a concert venue with a 20,000 seat capacity as well.
The first pictures of the renovation plans were recently posted on the Motor City Supporters’ website.
Hakala writes that since the acquisition of the Silverdome and it’s property came so cheap, ($583,000 at auction) there is plenty of money left over for the renovations. It is believed that the estimated total cost for the Silverdome’s renovations would run around $50 million meaning that the entire project could be privately funded. Great news for the cash strapped city of Pontiac.
Apostolopoulos has already submitted their application for an expansion team in the MLS however it was made very apparent by the league that their first priority is getting a second team within New York City.
With that said, Apostolopoulos is hopeful that the Detroit area is second in line for MLS expansion…
“If we were to be approved tomorrow, we could have the Silverdome renovated and a team on the field by 2014,” he said. “But we have to hold tight and see what happens with New York. The commissioner is really pushing hard for New York, and we just have to wait. Once that is resolved, we hope to be the next in line.”
Ref: Mlive.com, Motor City Supporters (images), AP (image)
