The Ford family is adding its weight behind Detroit’s bid to land a Major League Soccer franchise.

And Ford Field would be the venue to host the team if the bid is successful.

The Ford family will join the Dan Gilbert-Tom Gores-backed effort to bring the MLS to downtown Detroit, two people with firsthand knowledge told the Free Press. The news was formally announced later Thursday.

The partnership signals the end of plans to build a 23,000-seat stadium on the Gratiot Avenue jail site. The stadium was part of a development project that was estimated to cost $1 billion.

Read more:

Rossetti apologizes for using DCFC imagery in Detroit MLS expansion bid renderings

With three wealthy families — all veteran owners of professional sports teams — backing the effort, the Detroit market could have bolstered its chances to land a franchise when the MLS reveals its next two expansion cities for 2020 in December. The MLS also plans to add two more teams in 2022.

“Partnering with the Ford family bolsters our powerhouse group and provides a perfect stadium solution in the heart of Detroit’s central business and sports and entertainment districts,” said Detroit Pistons vice chairman Arn Tellem, who is coordinating the ownership group’s contact with MLS officials. “Over the last two years, we have invested significant time, effort and resources into our bid to bring MLS to Detroit. After careful study and analysis, we concluded that the downtown location of an MLS stadium is paramount to an MLS team’s success.

"And no MLS stadium sits in a better downtown location than Ford Field. We also saw additional evidence that multi-use stadiums can be very successful in the right situation and we believe our new proposal is superior for the city and for MLS in every way.”

It wasn't immediately clear the level of investment to come from the Fords.

But they would manage the site with 17 home matches for a regular season that goes from March to October. A site examination by architecture firm, Rossetti, concludes that Ford Field, with its 65,000-seat capacity, can easily be modified for MLS specifications.

It’s not clear who will pay for the seasonal stadium adjustment.

Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores and Quicken Loans founder and chairman Dan Gilbert, who owns the Cleveland Cavaliers, made Detroit one of many cities to submit expansion bids to join MLS in 2020.

The venture between the two billionaires was announced in April 2016 with Gilbert overseeing site acquisition and stadium construction for the project

Gores would operate day-to-day functions of the franchise, but with the Ford Field development, Gilbert likely will play a role as a primary investor.

MLS said in a statement Thursday it would need to see the revised bid before commenting specifically.

"We were recently informed that the partnership between Tom Gores and Dan Gilbert to bring a Major League Soccer expansion club to Detroit has amended its application to include the William Clay Ford family. The amended application also states that Ford Field is the group’s preferred stadium site.

Although MLS has tremendous respect for all of the owners involved in the Detroit bid, we have not had an opportunity to evaluate the amended application and it would be premature for MLS to offer a specific comment on it.

MLS continues to prioritize soccer-specific stadiums as a criteria for the selection of MLS expansion markets."

MLS is seeking an expansion fee of $150 million for each of the franchises awarded expansion teams in 2020. The league hasn't announced the expansion fee it will seek for 2022, but it's expected to be more than $150 million.

And while Ford Field doesn't match the MLS's usual smaller stadium concept, its location and indoor environment make it a viable and attractive option. The MLS is becoming amenable to bigger venues, thanks to the success of the first-year Atlanta United Football Club franchise, which attracted 70,425 fans to Mercedez-Benz Stadium in September in the the most-attended domestic game in the U.S. since the 1970s.

A successful bid would make Detroit the only market with all five major professional sports leagues based within walking distance of each other. Ford Field recently underwent $100 million in renovations.

“One needs only look at what has happened down in Atlanta with that team to know that there is not just a successful, but wildly successful model, that has happened in another market and, obviously, very recent,” Alexi Lalas, Birmingham native and MLS commentator for Fox Sports, said Thursday. “There’s a whole other aspect that people don’t look at. If, at some point, the concept of moving the schedule comes up, the ability for teams to play indoor could be beneficial.

“But, I do think that there is certainly cause for concern because it’s been pretty clear that the league wants a viable soccer-specific stadium. Now what that ultimately means and the definition is up for debate. All along, talking about building a much more intimate and therefore appropriate-type venue is specific, if that model is not in play, I think there certainly will be some skepticism and some concern, from both MLS and from those interested in what’s going on there.”

Tellem has said in the past the Detroit bid is shooting for 2020. Tellem said recently he hopes for an on-site visit from MLS officials soon and a decision is expected before the end of the year.

Given the financial backing of three billionaires with experience running professional franchises, the city’s bid appears to be good shape. With Los Angeles on board and Miami expected to add a franchise, the league will grow from 22 to 28 teams after the next wave of expansion.

MLS commissioner Don Garber fielded questions in Chicago before the league's All-Star game in July and said four cities stood out.

“Cincinnati and Nashville, and Sacramento and Detroit — just to name four where we've been to recently. Man, the energy there is off the charts,” Garber said, according to The Tennessean.

The other cities that submitted expansion bids were Charlotte, N.C., Indianapolis, Phoenix, Raleigh/Durham, N.C., St. Louis, San Antonio, San Diego and Tampa/St. Petersburg.

After the presentation, the bid goes to the league’s expansion committee and the hope is for 2020 expansion bids to be approved by the end of the year.

The Free Press spoke with Garber at the first game of the season for Orlando City Soccer Club in May when he seemed to indicate there were two downtown sites under consideration — although the official application only listed the unfinished Gratiot jail site. The application was supplemented within the past few days with Rosseti’s planning study.

“I’ve been there twice,” Garber said of Detroit. “I like both locations, but I really like the jail site. If I were a resident of Detroit, I would probably rather have a soccer stadium as the gateway to my city, rather than a jail. I hope they continue to make progress with that concept.”

It’s not clear whether Garber was referring to Ford Field.

Last month, after months of negotiations, a tentative deal between Wayne County and the City of Detroit appeared to clear the way for the soccer venture on Gratiot.

But Ford Field changes the equation, and adding the Ford family to the Gores-Gilbert partnership is big, Lalas said.

“The people that you get in bed with is crucial," Lalas said. "That’s been one of the real positives with this Detroit bid. And if you then add another big player who has local interest, that’s in-market, that understands the market and can help to make it … as Detroit as possible, then I do think that has some benefits and will be seen as such.”

Follow Vince Ellis on Twitter @vincent_ellis56. Free Press sports writer George Sipple contributed to this report.