My local sports team, DC United, is nearing the end of another season. While last year’s team was arguably the worst in the history of Major League Soccer, this year’s team is on the cusp of making the playoffs with three games remaining. Last night’s loss to Vancouver, however, dealt a serious blow to our postseason chances. Regardless, things are looking up for this team, and with a beloved former player as a first year coach and a bevy of young talent, next year will be awesome. Next year will always be better.
And, before I go any further, let me say also that this post is not about DC United’s potential stadium, so I beg you to keep reading as I continue with a stadium updateby clicking onward.
The only thing this team really needs is a brand new stadium, as they are currently playing at 50-year old “Historic RFK Stadium,” where falling cement debris from the unused upper deck is uncommon and raccoon sightings are very common. There are rumors about a new stadium being announced very soon. I’m hoping that it’s in DC city limits, is near a subway stop, and has a moat. I think it would be awesome if a stadium had a moat with fish swimming about and they lowered a drawbridge for fans to march across before each game. At the very least, it needs to be pretty amazing to keep up with all the other cool MLS stadiums that have sprung up recently.
Now, before another word is read, I simply must say that this post is not about all the super cool new stadiums around the country, but they are just too cool not to mention, so please fight the eyes from rolling at the mention of sports and read on.
In the past few years, many of the 18 MLS teams have moved from rented football stadiums into their own soccer-specific stadium. From New York ’s spectacular Red Bull Arena to the retrofitted historic stadiums in Portland and Vancouver, they all are uniquely wonderful. This summer Kansas City just opened one that might top them all and includes among other things, “high-speed beer taps capable of pouring a pint in 4 seconds. The machine can drain a keg in 15 minutes.” (That quote I copied over the summer from kansascity.com, but it's now a dead link. Boo!) That’s impressive; back in college it took me at least twenty minutes to drain a keg. Of course, I was never really trying.
Houston’s stadium is on course to open next year and from the pictures, it might be the new crown jewel among MLS stadiums. (They also have a live cam of the construction action! Hours of entertainment.) But it doesn’t hold a candle to what they are talking about doing in Detroit.
Alright, before you do anything else, I promise that this post is not about Detroit, but…
Detroit is a town that I, for one, am starting to like. I can’t help but root for the Detroit Lions - they play football, not soccer. A few years back they did not win a single game all season; this year they are undefeated. I love it, plus Matthew Stafford is on my Fantasy Football team.
It’s not just sports though. Detroit is making a comeback of its own. It wasn’t long ago that stories of $1 homes in downtown Detroit were pretty common. And I believe it was Detroit that there was talk of bulldozing 20% of the town because there were so many vacant homes. People are just moving out. And it was in 2009 that the old home of the Lions, the Silverdome, sold for just $583,000 after being built in 1975 at a cost of $55.7 million, or about 220 million dollars after inflation.
Okay, what can I say? Believe me, this post is not about the Silverdome, but we are getting close. This is pretty cool though.
The Silverdome is big and impressive. It seats close to 70,000 people. Unfortunately, since the Lions moved to their new stadium in the ‘90’s, 70,000 is close to the total amount of tickets sold to various events throughout the years. (I made that up; I have no idea what the actual numbers are.)
As impressive as the old building is, the plans for it are amazing. They want to split it up into three venues. A 20,000 seat multi-purpose arena, a 20,000 seat concert hall/convention center, and a 30,000 seat soccer stadium. The crazy part though, is the stadium would be above the arena and concert hall. It is madness and I love it! Here’s a diagram:
Alright before I finish up, there is going to be a little bit more about soccer, but soccer is not what this post is about. It’s about what I’m going to talk about after I talk about soccer. You’ve read this far, why not go ahead and finish up?
The grand master plan for MLS is to have 20 teams. There are currently 18 teams with the nineteenth, Montreal, set to join the league next year. The thinking goes that the final spot will go to a second team in New York, but with a stadium now being mandatory that could be tricky as I hear real estate prices are pretty high in Manhattan. St. Louis, Atlanta, Miami, Minneapolis, and a few other towns have all shown interest.
Detroit it seems would be a long shot, even with a way cool stadium idea, however, there is a campaign with this objective.
Ahhh… now we’re getting to the true meat of my story. Finally.
I just signed a petition to Bring MLS to Detroit, and I think you should too. I’ve never been to Detroit , nor do I have any reason to visit, but I would like to see them have a team, and putting my name to such a worthy cause is the least I can do. The good people of Detroit have been through a lot, they deserve a soccer team to love and support.
So as I’m sure you’ve seen by now, I included the petition sign-up on my side bar. It takes like two seconds. Plus, after you sign up, and here’s the kicker, you can start your own campaigns!
I’m not sure what my first petition will be about, but, if it is possible that any one is still reading this excessively long post, I’m sure it will succeed in whatever it may be.
1 comment:
This the first time you've invited activism, except for viewing your videos. So sign me up!
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