Detroit City FC's new Corktown stadium aims to be 'forever home of soccer in Detroit'

Soccer will soon have a new permanent home in the city of Detroit.

Detroit City FC announced it will build its own soccer-specific stadium in Detroit's Corktown neighborhood after playing at Cass Tech High School and then Keyworth Stadium in Hamtramck since the club was founded in 2012. The goal for the new stadium, which is still being planned from design to finances, is to open in 2027 to provide a permanent home for the club and sport in the city.

"Southwest Detroit will be where we are building this stadium, and it will be where the forever home of soccer in Detroit is," Detroit City FC chief commercial officer Alex Wright said.

DCFC held an owner's meeting at Supergeil, a restaurant blocks away from the new stadium site on Michigan, on Monday night to celebrate the announcement of the new stadium and answer questions from supporters who own an equity stake in the club. Wright, chief operating officer Todd Kropp and chief executive officer Sean Mann — three DCFC co-owners ― explained as much as they could about the pending move.

Detroit City announced last week the club would be building a new soccer stadium in Corktown on the site of the long-abandoned Southwest Detroit Hospital. The stadium would replace the abandoned building, swapping the "blight" in the neighborhood as Mann described it for something uplifting the community.

"It's a site where we are not popping down a UFO that's going to be out of place," Mann said. "We're approaching it together (with) established communities, and in that sense, it is the ultimate way for us to give back to the city we love."

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The idea of a stadium has been on the club's radars for years coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mann said. They looked at various spots throughout the city before narrowing in on Corktown in the last 18 months. The determining factors were the easily accessible location off of two major highways and Michigan, the new life in the area with new establishments and the re-opening of Michigan Central Station, and the proximity to home for the owners who have lived in the neighborhood for years.

"It is the perfect site in the sense that it compliments things that are already here," Mann told the Free Press. "We're not trying to create a new neighborhood, right? We're tying into Mexicantown, we're tying into Corktown. ... We want the matchday to be fun, special, unique. So people having a second place, whether they are coming (to Supergeil) or some of the Mexican restaurants on Bagley, wherever. It's an experience, that's what you're selling. That's what sports are, an experience."

The location in a neighborhood outside of downtown was another selling point. The rest of Detroit's established pro sports teams play downtown around Woodward. Detroit City FC, which is still a relatively new club trying to grow, wants to stand out in a new location where there is still sports history, just down the road from the site of Tiger Stadium.

"I think it's important not to be in the center of downtown," Mann said. "I love our other teams and other venues but I think for us, we are never going to stand out in this market if we don't do things slightly different than the other teams."

Detroit City will continue to play in Keyworth Stadium in Hamtramck, a site supporters are sad to leave, until the new stadium is complete. The club's goal was always to find a permanent home in Detroit while still supporting and preserving the fervent energy of the fanbase for each home game.

"It's been important to us to make inroads in the city from day one and this is the biggest effort we've ever made," Mann said, "One thing I love about Hamtramck is that it's the historic stadium district and you've got all those amazing bars within walking distance that make matchdays so special. And this site, one of the few sites in the city, where that was possible.

Funding and rendering

The old hospital land for the stadium was purchased by an LLC in March for $6.5 million according to land records. The club said the financing details are still being finalized and will announce them "when they are finalized."

"To date, those who contributed to the project; it's friends and family of the existing board, existing partners and some siblings and some coworkers," Mann said. "There'll be some more money raised but I think, obviously, there'll be some debt taken on as well."

Detroit City is also in conversations with the City of Detroit about the stadium plans and said any word of investment from the city would be finalized in the coming months. Mann told the crowd mayor Mike Duggan has been "very supportive" of the effort and believes DCFC's stadium ask is relatively benign compared to others.

Owners told supporters in attendance they will be civic with how they finance the stadium, alluding to not asking for a large sum of public money to fund it, then later promised they wouldn't ask the state government for $1.5 billion like what Indianapolis just approved for a new soccer stadium in April.

"I think we approach it as philosophical as well as pragmatic," Mann said. "We are very aware of the pushback on stadiums across the country and we recognize we don't have the clout of an NFL team. We're not the Chicago Bears, we're not proposing a $5 billion option. I think that's kind of rooted in what we're trying to do.

"The mantra is smaller, more executable and more authentically Detroit that complements existing neighborhoods, not trying to replace them."

Club investors asked during the meeting Q&A if crowdfunding would be involved and Mann said the club would be open to it if fans wanted to contribute in any way. DCFC will also have sessions with stakeholders over the summer to receive their input on the stadium.

One of the things there will be input on is the stadium's design. Mann said there have been early renderings drawn up by a firm based in England, but the club chose not to present anything yet because the design hasn't been finalized.

"The reality is they are changing, they are evolving, and we don't want to put something out there that we are going to be backtracking from," Mann said. "There's still an info process we need to go through."

Mann did confirm the stadium will be larger than Keyworth, which seats just under 7,000 fans, and will be a standalone stadium. DCFC is in talks with other entities who could use the space to make it a "365" venue, which will determine things like if the playing surface is grass or turf. Other than that, the details will come later.

"Things are going to change, which they will in this process," Mann said. "I think that's why we're conservative with the renderings and talking about financials. Hopefully, we've built that trust with our fans so they know that we're going in and execute on a vision I think they've all bought into."

'Greatest story in American sports'

Detroit City FC was founded in 2012 by a group of five Detroit residents, three of whom spoke at the meeting. The club started in the National Premier Soccer League before moving up to the National Independent Soccer Association in 2019 then the USL starting in the 2022 season.

The club originally played at Cass Tech, paying $125 a game to use the field, before moving to Keyworth stadium in 2016. Now the club, which has grown to include a women's team and leagues for all ages around Detroit, will have a home to themselves.

"It's one of the most remarkable stories in pro sports," Mann said. "It started with five guys each distributed 2,000 bucks. And I think we've created something that was relevant to people that was worth caring about really quickly and we've taken that fan base and brought other people on board who are bought into what we're doing."

The location is where the idea of the club was born. Mann has lived in the neighborhood on West Grand Blvd. for 16 years and Wright and Tropp live in Corktown. Now the team will return to replace a rundown building in the area where the modern version of Detroit soccer was conceived.

"This is really where it all started," Mann said.

The new stadium positions DCFC to be prepared for the next step of American soccer, which owners said couldn't be predicted 10 to 20 years in the future, while committing to winning on the USL level. It is the next step in the competition evolution for a team that's already proven their mettle against the top competition in U.S. soccer, knocking out the MLS' Houston Dynamo in the U.S. Open Cup and advancing to the Round of 16, on Wednesday against Indy, for the first time ever with a chance to win it all.

"The stadium is a way to financially put us in position to be the leaders in the league, which is a hard thing to do," Mann said, "Part of that is giving us more resources to build out the support system to be a dominant force in the league.

"We are in position to be a force in American soccer, no matter what league we are in."

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Why Detroit City FC is building new soccer stadium in Corktown