Wednesday night, Detroit City FC held an owners meeting at the Detroit City Clubhouse to announce some pretty significant updates concerning the club’s new stadium scheduled to open in 2027.
According to some of the information from the meeting, the club has secured a naming rights sponsor for the new stadium which will be located at the current site of the old Southwest Detroit Hospital on the border of Corktown and Southwest Detroit. Moreover, though this deal with the still unnamed sponsor will not only set a new record for the league by what is said to be a significant amount but will also apparently reset USL venue standards. This in and of itself is interesting considering USL’s aspirations to implement a division one league by the decades end to run parallel with Major League Soccer.
If it’s true that the deal with the naming rights sponsor will not only set records for USL but also redefine its standards, it comes at a particularly opportune time in this process. This is especially relevant given that the initial designs for the new stadium have reportedly exceeded the budget by approximately $65 million, although its not clear if the stadium’s final design and construction cost will ultimately go over budget. Additionally, the club has announced that there is no guarantor for the debt incurred to build the new stadium. This means increased pressure on the club to secure third-party partnerships, sponsorships, and user agreements to help support this debt. Not to mention, based on what was coming out of last night’s meeting, the mortgage will be paid down by the the users of the stadium. And unlike the stadium being built out in Grand Rapids which uses a hotel tax to subsidize public bonds, the DCFC stadium initiative seeks private debt.
The club also announced that the global design, architecture, engineering, and planning firm HOK will oversee the design of the new 15,000-seat stadium.
“This partnership with HOK marks an exciting new chapter for our stadium project and DCFC,” says Sean Mann, CEO of DCFC. “This stadium represents more than a home for our club; it’s a testament to the passion and resilience of our supporters and the spirit of our city.
“As one of the first major projects led by a new generation of Detroiters, we take immense pride in creating a place where our community can gather and celebrate for years. We look forward to working with an industry leader like HOK to bring this vision to life.”
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The club also mentioned that HOK is an industry leader in cost-effective stadium designs.
Lastly, the club also expressed some site challenges with the new location. This includes significant easements that still exist on the site, however, there is also apparently a 16-foot wide sewer line 50-feet directly underneath the Hospital that apparently required inspectors to use kayaks when doing their initial inspections of the site.
Discussions with local landowners are reportedly underway to devise parking plans for match days, which have been and continue to be a significant issue for the club at their current venue, Keyworth Stadium in Hamtramck.