Detroit Lions to unveil new uniforms before the draft; new practice facility years away

ORLANDO — Detroit Lions president Rod Wood spoke with reporters for nearly 30 minutes at the NFL's annual meeting Monday. He covered topics ranging from the Lions' new uniform release to the decision to cut Cam Sutton.

Here are some highlights of Wood's media session:

Changing outfits

The Lions plan to unveil new uniforms that have been years in the making "just before" next month's draft, Wood said, though he declined to provide many details about the new look.

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"I think everybody will be excited about it," Wood said. "I’m not going to tease it too much but I’m really happy with the way it turned out. It was a multi-year process that (chief communications and brand officer) Brian (Facchini) and (chief operating officer) Mike Disner really led and worked with Nike and the league. I think fans are going to be really excited about it."

Wood said the uniforms honor the Lions' traditional Honolulu Blue and silver color scheme "with a little updating and twists." The Lions plan to introduce "a couple of different pant options that can go with jerseys, so it’ll give us different options to wear during the season," Wood said, and will honor former owner William Clay Ford in a different way than by having the initials "WCF" on their jersey sleeves.

"We’re going to treat that in a little different way," Wood said. "I’m not going to tease exactly how it is but it’s going to be honored, but not in the same way it was on the current uniforms."

HQ on the move?

Wood said the Lions are weighing options to move their Allen Park practice facility to locations ranging from Detroit to the Ann Arbor area, though a move is still years from happening.

"We’re still evaluating it," he said. "I know there’s a lot of rumors out there and every time I talk about it, it leads to more people reaching out to me with ideas on where we should be. I would say it’s in the early stage of evaluating it. We’re focused on potentially that. Obviously, downtown with the 375 project and the impact that’s going to have on the stadium and traffic flow, so we have a real estate consultant who’s working on all those things, but very, very early stages of any announcement on the practice facility."

For now, the Lions continue to invest in updates for their current facility and have a project underway to double the size of their training room.

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Megatron mega-back

Hall-of-Fame receiver Calvin Johnson is "completely in the fold," Wood said, after years of having an estranged relationship with the team.

Johnson was a regular at Lions home games last season and Ford Field recently announced a partnership with Primitiv, the cannabis company he owns with another ex-Lion, Rob Sims.

According to a release last week, Primitiv's products "will be highlighted at various Ford Field concerts, competitions and other non-Lions events." Wood said the deal did not have to be approved by the NFL since it does not include football games.

Johnson took umbrage with the Lions' decision to make him repay $1.6 million in bonus prorations after his 2016 retirement. The NFL evaluates and OKs all marketing agreements involving ex-NFL players and their former teams to ensure they do not circumvent the salary cap.

"If the league were to loosen up on what you can do with that type of product, we would probably go back and reinvent the partnership to include Lions games," Wood said. "Right now, it’s exclusively for like concerts and other things."

Heading overseas

The Lions were awarded marketing rights in Canada, Germany, Austria and Switzerland on Monday, the team's first true foray into international waters. (Previously, the Lions had natural marketing rights in parts of Canada because of its proximity to Detroit.)

Wood said the Lions bid on marketing rights in Germany in part to capitalize on receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown's popularity in the country. St. Brown's mother is German, and he speaks the language fluently.

“Germany, with the number of games that are being played there, and in particular with St. Brown’s popularity, was kind of a natural thing to draft off of his popularity and vice versa, 'cause I know he wants to do some things over there," Wood said. "So that’s the two that we bid on now. We may look at a few others in the future, but we’re excited to have been awarded 'cause Germany is getting pretty full."

Wood said he expects the Lions to play an international game "in the next year or two," and that having marketing rights in Germany likely "would increase our opportunity to have a game there" in 2026, the next time the Lions have nine home games on their schedule.

The Lions have not played internationally since making back-to-back trips to London in 2014-15.

"We’re kind of overdue," Wood said. "I suppose we could still play one this year because Chicago and Minnesota are in London. We could be a road team."

That's the ticket

Wood said the Lions had a 96% renewal rate on season tickets for 2024, despite a significant increase in price after last year's 12-5 season.

"Nobody’s really abandoned their tickets," Wood said. "We still have, I think it’s approaching 20,000 people on a wait list, and we’ve been very cautious over the years recently in not increasing the prices and have really fallen quite a bit behind the league average, and this barely catches us up to just below league average."

The Lions offered season-ticket holders the chance to opt-in for playoff tickets for the 2024 season at the time of renewal. Those who passed will be given another chance to opt in later this year, Wood said.

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Lions president Rod Wood talks new uniforms, practice facility