MLS expansion: Detroit power players stress adaptability of Ford Field

NEW YORK — Now we wait.

Quicken Loans founder and Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, Pistons vice president Arn Tellem and Lions president Rod Wood were part of a Detroit contingent that made a final pitch on Wednesday in front of the MLS Expansion Committee in hopes of being awarded one of two expansion clubs in 2020.

Each of the four finalists — Detroit, Cincinnati, Nashville and Sacramento — made presentations at the league’s office at 420 5th Ave. Nashville went first, followed by Sacramento, then Detroit. Cincinnati presented last.

Detroit is the only one of the four finalists that has an ownership combination featuring three billionaires. MLS has long coveted the 13th largest media market in the country.

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But Detroit remains a long shot among the four, in part because MLS has shown a preference for soccer-specific stadiums, a concept the Detroit bid tossed aside when the Ford family joined the fray last month and offered the Lions’ 63,000-seat stadium as the home venue for professional soccer.

Detroit's presentation included an explanation for why it chose Ford Field over the initial plan of building a 23,000-seat soccer-specific stadium on the failed Wayne County jail site at Gratiot. The soccer stadium was part of a proposed $1 billion development.

“It’s the best location,” Gilbert said choosing Ford Field instead of building a new stadium. “When you think of the five teams in (three) stadiums together — unprecedented in the whole country and maybe the world.

“You think about MLS and the pregame stuff and the intimacy and tightness of the stadiums to each other. They have great areas around them.”

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Although the county announced it is nearing a deal with Gilbert's Rock Ventures to build a $520-million criminal justice center at a different site, the soccer-specific stadium idea was scrapped when the Fords were added to the bid in November.

“The Gratiot site is still a good site, for sure,” Gilbert said, adding that whatever ends up there should probably be available to be used on a daily basis, something that wouldn’t happen with a soccer-specific stadium.

“Ford Field works so well and the Rossetti architecturalfirm has a lot of ideas on how to make it really good on game day, too,” Gilbert said.

MLS has argued that building a soccer-specific stadium at the Gratiot site was pivotal to Detroit’s chances of getting one of the two expansion clubs in 2020. So what changed since Gilbert and Gores pitched the jail site for soccer in April 2016?

“We had no idea that Ford Field was even an option,” Gilbert said.

Tellem acknowledged that the success Atlanta United FC had in drawing big crowds for games at an NFL stadium had an impact. The first-year expansion club plays at the Falcons' field — Mercedes-Benz Stadium — in downtown Atlanta.

“The average downtown stadium in the MLS draws 30,000,” Tellem said. “The one thing we didn’t want to do is build a soccer stadium for 20,000 and all of a sudden have fan interest for 30,000 or 40,000. Ford Field is adaptable. It can adapt to any size or crowd.

“We believe we’re going to be like Atlanta. We believe there’s such strong interest in Detroit and the region, that we’re going to be able to support crowds of 30,000 to 40,000 once we have an MLS team.”

While the league covets the nation's 13th-largest media market , it may frown upon an closed-roof NFL stadium being a home venue. Atlanta's dome has a retractable roof.

The MLS expansion committee will meet again on Dec. 14 and an announcement on which two finalists will be awarded teams is expected to be made before Dec. 19.

Tellem said the MLS expansion committee did not show its hand during the two-hour presentation and had several questions, some of which the Detroit group has to go back and answer.

“We’ve made a very good case and a compelling one why we should be chosen,” Tellem said. “I think we were able to answer all their questions as to why Ford Field makes perfect sense and is a great location for an MLS team to play.”

Duggan added: “We pitched an alternate vision. Whether they accept it or not, we’ll see.”

Wood said the Rossetti plans accommodate the size of a soccer field. “We’ve sent teams to Atlanta to see how Atlanta is doing it,” Wood said. “And we’ve learned a lot from that. We’ll have plenty of time to learn more.”

For fans of the teams involved, the day was a kind of festive wait to see what, if any, positive information might trickle out regarding their cities.

Former Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson and current Sacramento mayor Darrell Steinberg were part of the presentation group for Sacramento.

On the streets of New York outside the 5th Avenue building that houses the MLS offices, Sacramento Republic FC fans chanted. Club officials reportedly planned to meet up with the traveling fans later Wednesday at a nearby bar.

Will Alexander, a member of the MLS2Nashville steering committee, spoke only with Nashville media afterward the Nashville’s presentation.

“We're satisfied that we've made our best case possible,” Alexander told reporters after the meeting. “We’re leaving here today thinking that we’ve made a strong, compelling pitch on all the elements that MLS is looking at. Now it’s in their hands to make a decision.”

Many FC Cincinnati supporters took to social media to show support for their club and FC Cincinnati team president and general manager Jeff Berding ahead of his pitch.

Berding was joined in his presentation by majority FC Cincinnati owner Carl Lindner III and part-owner Scott Farmer.

Contact George Sipple: gsipple@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @georgesipple.

The Cincinnati Enquirer and Nashville Tennessean contributed to this report.