If you look around the country today, you will find virtually every professional sport, whether male or female, with owners demanding new venues for their teams. While that is not new, the lack of any detailed information for almost every recent proposal is quite alarming to me.
Don’t get me wrong, sports owners have never wanted the public to genuinely be involved in the venue details. This would force the team to answer questions that they don’t want to talk about. So, teams normally will pressure local governments to approve these massive deals in weeks, if not days, allowing nobody to read the crucial details.
In Detroit, a soccer team called Detroit City FC (DCFC), is negotiating with local leaders to build a new stadium that the team claims will allow for soccer to “have a new permanent home…in Detroit”. If an agreement can be reached soon, the CEO of the team has indicated that the team could be ready to play in it by the 2027 season. While DCFC’s men’s team plays in the USL Championship, the league below MLS, the woman’s team plays in the amateur USL W League.
Thankfully, the stadium plan was “designed for future growth” and would “accelerate the redevelopment of Detroit’s oldest neighborhood”, according to DCFC.
Just one small problem. They have virtually nothing locked in and ready to move forward. The stadium itself is a mystery, apart from its location. Aside from the team wanting to finish construction before the 2027 season, does anyone know anything else about the proposed stadium? Size of the stadium? The team doesn’t know. Cost of building the stadium? The team doesn’t know. Does the team have any goals in building the stadium? The team doesn’t know, since the proposal “is still being planned from design to finances”. Speaking of finances, the team will not release any documents related to the $6.5 million purchase of the land for the new stadium. Why? Because the “financing details are still being finalized”.
— NextSTLOk, but is the team going to ask the city or state to give any money for this project? This will be “finalized in the coming months”. In the last few weeks, DCFC leaders have publicly claimed that when it comes to taxpayer money, the team “will be civic with how they finance the stadium” and will not be “asking for a large sum of public money to fund it”. They will be needing something from taxpayers. Since the team is likely going to use the city’s Community Benefits Ordinance process for building the stadium, this means that the public will be entitled to know some small details about the project.
Crain’s Detroit Business wrote a story on DCFC and mentioned that the cost of the stadium could be above $75 million, will involve city land valued at $1 million or more and could “receive $1 million or more in property tax abatements”. That seems like this project could get expensive for taxpayers. Sadly, it continues to be unknown whether any taxpayer money will be used in this project.
Fortunately, we will get exact answers soon. Just kidding. The team continues to have “discussions on (tax) incentives…behind the scenes”. That should make everyone feel good. I am sure we will know absolutely everything in a short amount of time. So right now, we are left with a promise by DCFC that they will “begin a public engagement process later this year” and plan to give us actual details “after talking with fans, residents and city officials”.