Local billionaire businessmen have promised Major League Soccer they will spend $95 million, including $50 million to build a soccer training and academy facility at the corner of Woodward Avenue and Seven Mile Road and an additional $20 million to create 100 youth soccer fields across the city in their bid to land an expansion team.

They would spend $25 million to retrofit Ford Field to accommodate a new MLS team, but won't build a retractable roof because it's not worth the hassle.

The details were laid out in a Sept. 24 letter from Quicken Loans Inc. Chairman and Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert and Detroit Pistons Vice Chairman Arn Tellem to MLS Commissioner Don Garber and Assistant Commissioner Mark Abbott. Tellem is the bid's liaison to MLS and top aide to Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores, who would co-own the team. Gores is copied on the letter along with Detroit Lions owner Martha Firestone Ford and Lions President Rod Wood, who are involved because of the bid's use of Ford Field as a home stadium for the proposed expansion team.

It's unclear if any of the $95 million promised in the letter would use any public funding. Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan is mentioned in the letter as backing the youth soccer field projects. Proposed are 12 soccer parks totaling more than 100 fields built over three years that would serve 150,000 kids, the letter says.

John Roach, director of media relations for Duggan, declined comment on how much money the city would contribute or what specific land at Woodward and Seven Mile was on the table.

"The city has several options for potential individual soccer parks if Detroit were to be selected by MLS for a new franchise," he said. Much of the city- or Detroit Land Bank Authority-owned property at Seven Mile and Woodward is noncontiguous and would be difficult to assemble as a large chunk of land.

However, Palmer Park at the southwest corner of the two thoroughfares is 292 acres and the city has closed the property's golf course, Crain's has reported. The city is evaluating what to do with the property, which is being used as recreation space.

Crain's obtained the Gilbert-Tellem letter Friday afternoon. The Detroit bid's spokesman said no one would be available to comment about the letter. A message also was left for MLS.

The crux of the letter, first reported by the Detroit Free Press, is an explanation of why retrofitting Ford Field with a retractable roof isn't worth the hassle. Namely, it would require too much work to strength the stadium's foundation, columns and roof trusses, and because the entire interior would need to be winterized.

The decision to not to open the stadium is a key development because, according to the letter, MLS in April told the bid that it "would grant us an expansion team if we agreed to put a retractable roof on Ford Field."

The league has long stated it prefers its new teams play in an open-air soccer-specific stadium, or stadiums with roofs that can be opened.

Detroit's MLS expansion bid originally included such a stadium as part of a $1 billion mixed-use development proposed for the site of the unfinished downtown county jail. In November 2017, Gilbert and Gores surprisingly abandoned that plan and replaced it with a proposal to retrofit 64,500-seat Ford Field to accommodate an MLS team.

Garber in the past has said Detroit's decision to not build its own soccer stadium dropped it out of front-runner status to get one of four expansion teams being added. Nashville and Cincinnati were awarded teams, and one or two more markets remain.

MLS hasn't said anything publicly about Detroit's chances to land a team since the Ford Field letter was delivered.

The notion of adding a retractable roof to Ford Field first emerged publicly in June, and over the summer the bid hired Detroit architects Rossetti, Houston-based structural engineers Walter P. Moore and Associates Inc., and Southfield-based construction firm Barton Malow Co., to conduct a feasibility study.

The results of the study haven't been made public, but the letter cites concerns about the need to strengthen the stadium for any retraction equipment; to pressurize the building including interior Class-A office space; and to weatherize it against the elements. The 14-month construction timeline in the letter, which didn't include a cost estimate, was said to be unreasonably disruptive to the Detroit Lions, stadium events and corporate tenants.

The letter noted that the two retractable roof stadiums that are home to MLS teams suffer from "significant operational issues" with their roofs. Those buildings are Mercedes-Benz Stadium (Atlanta FC) and BC Place (Vancouver Whitecaps).

"We concluded that the theoretical enhancement of a retractable roof could provide pales in comparison to the concerns that the retrofit would raise. And we remain confident in our ability to build a successful MLS team without it," the Gilbert-Tellem letter said.

While acknowledging that MLS prefers games played under open skies, the Detroit bid asserts that the stadium remains ideal to host a team because of its busy downtown location and the metro Detroit market's population, including wealthy and young residents. It also noted that the region is one of the largest TV markets, and that it has a large corporate base — things that MLS has identified as important as its seeks to grow and eventually turn a profit.

The stadium retrofitting plan includes masking off Ford Field's upper decks with large graphic panels upon which video and advertising messaging can be projected. It would scale seating from 26,000 to 64,000 for matches. The letter also promises $25 million in spending on the stadium to outfit it for a soccer team, including new locker rooms and other spaces. That's atop a $100 million renovation privately financed by the Ford family two years ago, a project that added new video boards, improved sound systems, new premium clubs and seating and replaced all the suites.

The Fords, who have not commented on the letter, have been billed as the potential expansion team's landlord because they operate publicly-owned Ford Field. However, they also would have an ownership option under the deal, too. Wood had publicly expressed doubts about the roof project because of the potential disruption.

The letter says that the Detroit bid expects an MLS team here to regularly draw more than 30,000 fans per game. Teams this season averaged 24,127 per match.