MLS To Detroit Already Facing Battle With Soccer Hipsters, County Officials
By Ty Duffy
Tom Gores and Dan Gilbert announced last Tuesday they were teaming up in a bid to bring MLS to Detroit. The bid held plans for a preliminary stadium plan on Wednesday. If you’re wondering how long it took for this to become angsty on the Internet: days if not hours.
Detroit’s soccer hipsters are upset. The “Northern Guard,” the Supporters’ Group, for fourth-division Detroit City FC is adamantly opposed to MLS co-opting its precious brand. In a Facebook post, the group termed the league “a turd you shouldn’t consume.”
That whole branding debate presumes a club is happening, which isn’t a given. Detroit isn’t sexy enough, like New York or Atlanta, to get MLS to abandon its soccer-specific stadium requirements.
The one (and for now only) option for a downtown soccer stadium is the unfinished Wayne County jail site. County officials would have to accept the $150 million already put into the project as sunk cost and sell the land.
County officials aren’t enthused by the plan. Wayne County still needs a jail. Starting from scratch may cost more than rebooting at the present site. An unofficial (probably official) Twitter account for the bid is attempting to rouse the public with some hashtagtavism.
One retweet, but movements have to start somewhere.