November 17, 2009
Silverdome sold for less than a studio apartment in Manhattan
And we have a winner in the Pontiac Silverdome auction: A Toronto-based real estate company won the 34-year-old former home of the Detroit Lions with a bid of $583,000, or just over 1% of what it cost to build originally. Even though the price was low, getting the stadium into private hands was important for Pontiac's financial health, according to Fred Leeb, the city's emergency manager. "Even I have to admit that the number is lower than I would like," Fred Leeb, Pontiac's state-appointed emergency financial manager, told the Wall Street Journal. "But I'm happy that we made the decision. Procrastination was literally costing us millions of dollars."
The names of the Silverdome's new owners weren't revealed, but Leeb did say that they plan on using the dome for a Major League Soccer franchise, as well as a pro women's soccer team. That's a bit odd, given MLS's increasing insistence that its teams play in soccer-only stadiums, but I guess at that price, the Toronto group can afford to buy a stadium that it plans to throw away in a couple of years.
March 26, 2009
Not everyone united on DC stadium plan
The Washington Post reports that the Prince George's County Council's General Assembly Committee voted 5-0, with two abstentions, against the next step in the stadium process. Specifically, the committee voted to recommend opposing state legislation allowing the Maryland Stadium Authority to begin design, site study, and financing work on the proposed new stadium for DC United. This vote is non-binding, and such votes represent "the sense of the Council at that time" according to Council Chairman Marilynn M. Bland.
While other Council members were silent on the reasons for the vote, Eric Olsen took issue with an obscure throw-in part of the plan allowing for new headquarters for the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, bypassing the council. According to Olsen, "That is a fatal flaw."
DC United spokesman Doug Hicks appeared bemused. "It's difficult to react to today's vote, as we've not yet spoken to the legislators and don't know what, exactly, they are opposed to."