Detroit City FC buys more stadium land

Article posted by Coliseum, June 6^th, 2025

Image: Progressive Companies

United Soccer League (USL) club Detroit City FC is buying more land for its proposed 15,000-seat stadium and mixed-use development on the abandoned Southwest Detroit Hospital site.

Crains Detroit said that last month, the Detroit Land Bank Authority board agreed a deal to sell nine parcels of land to an affiliate of the men’s and women’s soccer teams.

In all, the nine parcels being purchased total about two-thirds of an acre and would be used to create about 160 parking spaces, according to the land bank documents.

The USL Championship is a professional men’s soccer league in the United States that began play in 2011. The USL is sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation as a Division II league since 2017, placing it under Major League Soccer (MLS) in the hierarchy.

Detroit City FC is an American professional soccer club based in Detroit, Michigan (US) that competes in the USL Championship. The club currently plays its games at Keyworth Stadium in Hamtramck.

Keyworth Stadium is a 7,933-seat multipurpose stadium located in Hamtramck, Michigan, an enclave of Detroit (US). It was opened by the former President of the United States Franklin Delano Roosevelt on October 15th, 1936, during his second campaign for President.

Cairns Detroit further stated that Detroit City FC co-founder Sean Mann said the club doesn’t want to have ‘a sea of surface parking lots’ as part of the project but also needs to be “mindful of the quota the city has for stadiums” — one spot for every six seats, or about 2,500 spaces for this project.

He said, “We don’t think (large swaths of surface parking) contributes to what we’re trying to do in our own backyard with this project.”

The stadium will be built on the site of the old Southwest Detroit Hospital that’s been an eyesore in Corktown ever since it went vacant 18 years ago.

The Southwest Detroit Hospital is an abandoned hospital located in the Mexican town neighborhood of Detroit, Michigan (US). It opened in 1973 as the first Detroit hospital to hire and accredit the African- American doctors and nurses, which was uncommon in the United States at that time. The original hospital existed only 17 years. In 1991, it closed and declared bankruptcy. The building has been abandoned for 18 years.

The club will have to spend roughly $6 million to drain, demolish and develop the brownfield property, an investment that will save them on property taxes for the next 21 years.

Drainage is underway and will start in the next few weeks, with demolition slated for later in the summer. It will signify the beginning of the club’s move from Keyworth Stadium in Hamtramck to their future home just seven miles away in Corktown.

The 15,000-seat stadium is expected to be ready for the start of the 2027 season. Later in the summer, Mann says the club will reveal the name of DCFC’s new home. He says that’s when they’ll also release final renderings of the design.

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