Italian soccer club AC Milan beat Greek side Panathinaikos 1-0 in a shootout this weekend. The score — and the game, for that matter — are not important. The location is. This game, held at the Pontiac Silverdome, drew over 30,000 fans. The soccer match was part of a push by Steve Apostolopoulos, the Silverdome’s new owner, to rejuvenate interest in the stadium.
Apostolopoulos has some big ideas for the Silverdome, which he purchased for $583,000 from the city of Detroit last year (emphasis mine).
One of their goals in suburban Detroit is to acquire a franchise in Major League Soccer. To retrofit this 80,325-seat stadium to match the scaled-down models in vogue around MLS, the new owners are considering a radical idea. They would tear off the Silverdome’s air-supported roof and divide the place horizontally into two levels with a new floor across what is now the middle deck. Atop this would sit an outdoor soccer field with less than half the current seats. Below it would be smaller spaces for basketball and hockey games or other events.
Could Detroit become the MLS’ 20th franchise? Find out after the jump…
I could write a novel about the advantages and disadvantages Detroit has over other areas in search of becoming MLS’ 20th franchise. Instead of wasting my time in something 80% of you have stopped reading because you’re more interested in seeing Willa Ford’s tatted-up cooch, here’s the basic idea.
- After these renovations, Detroit will have a soccer-specific stadium, something the league covets and is pushing for among all of its teams.
- The interest is there, arguably. While one game is a small sample size, there is likely enough interest in the sport of soccer in southeast Michigan to support an MLS franchise.
- New York, the most popular locale being mentioned for franchise #20, already has a team. New York Red Bulls were having attendance issues before bringing in international stars Thierry Henry and Rafa Marquez. An expansion franchise without all that star power may struggle to bring in new fans.
- The second area “mentioned” (and by that I mean it showed up when I Googled “MLS 20th team”) is South Florida. The state of Florida has already failed twice, with teams in both Miami and Tampa folding after just a few seasons. Baltimore, another possible location, seems to be more interested in swiping nearby D.C. United instead of starting from scratch.
- The biggest disadvantage for Detroit (aside from the stadium collapsing or something) is the economy. Whether the city could legitimately support another sports franchise is a question that remains to be answered.
Obviously, it gets more complicated than this, especially when you add other possible locations into the mix. I would love to see an MLS franchise come to southeast Michigan, even if its not in downtown Detroit. The idea of renovating the Silverdome is exciting, provided that the architecture of the building allows for the plans mentioned. Even if MLS doesn’t jump at the idea, I’m happy to see we’re getting more use out of the dome than Seattle did with theirs.
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