Canadian firm submits winning bid of $583,000 for (Pontiac) Silverdome

[Bozita]

Source: Detroit Free Press

POSTED: 4:23 P.M. NOV. 16, 2009 | UPDATED: 4:59 P.M. TODAY
Canadian firm submits winning bid of $583,000 for Silverdome
BY MELANIE SCOTT
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER


A family-owned Toronto real estate company has submitted a winning bid of $583,000 for the Pontiac Silverdome, former home of the Detroit Lions until they moved to Ford Field in 2002, and nearly 130 adjacent acres.

The winning bidder, one of four and whose identity has not yet been released, plans to use the facility for a men's Major League Soccer team and women's professional soccer teams, Fred Leeb, Pontiac’s emergency financial manager, told the Free Press in an exclusive interview.

Leeb said the successful bidder's name is not being released until final details are worked out and the sale closes, which could take up to 45 days.

The 80,300-seat stadium, which was built for $55.7 million in 1975, is costing the city about $1.5 million annually just to maintain and financially strapped Pontiac can no longer afford the cost.

Read more: http://www.freep.com/article/20091116/NEWS03/91116065/1318/Canadian-firm-submits-winning-bid-of-583000-for-Silverdome

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This is what happens to taxpayer-financed sports stadiums when the teams decide they need fancier digs.

That's $7.26 per seat.

[CreekDog]

1. Another example of GM building cars that are way too big

how they gonna park that thing?

[Skinner]

2. Um, that's messed up.

Lots of homes cost more than that.

[notesdev]

3. It's not the price

it's the upkeep... in this economy, who's got $1.5 mil yearly to spend on an aging stadium in the Detroit market? There's actually quite a bit of property in Detroit where the value is less than zero.

[BeatleBoot]

4. That's because Michigan is messed up.

[imdjh]

5. Look at the bright side: is there a better place for pro-soccer?

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

11. Might be too small for soccer

I think soccer fields are quite a bit wider than football fields. There may be enough space if you get rid of the team bench areas.

But, is there a market for pro soccer?

:hi:

[imdjh]

12. Precisely. It will be where it can only annoy the fewest people.

[pampango]

6. I wonder what the reaction would have been if a Chinese company had offerred twice

the selling price to the city of Pontiac. Not that a Chinese company would have any reason to be interested in the Silverdome that I know of, but hypothetically.

[salin]

7. Let that be a lesson to cities (I have lived in several)

cowtowing to the demands of a pro team to build us (at tax payer expense) a larger stadium or we will leave. Shelf life of the 55+million dollar stadium, less than thirty years. Value less than a decade later, about 1% of the original cost (much less of all converted into the same value of the dollar in 1974 to 2009.)

The Hoosier Dome (later known as the RCA Dome) had a life of not much more than 25 years. I have lived in two cities when such deals were being voted for - all in the name of economic development. Stuck with big bills, and not much tangible returns. Maybe future such campaigns will include economic feasibility studies that consider the time span to recoup tax payers dollars is about 30 years.

[dysfunctional press]

10. unfortunately, the media in most large cities is on the side of the corporati, not the people.

so the only message that gets out is 'stadium good'.

[salin]

14. Sadly, too true.

[Faygo Kid]

8. Spent many a Thanksgiving Day there watching Barry.

Out of the area now, but also spent Thanksgivings as a kid and young adult at Tiger Stadium. The Lions were bad then, too. Still, I will watch them this year, as I always have. Tradition.

Helluva deal for the buyer. Many main roads merge at the Silverdome. I'm sure it will be torn down.

[amandabeech]

13. Watched the Lions lose at those venues, but via TV not live.

Still, watching the Lions on Thanksgiving was a family ritual.

It was fun to see which male relative was the last to fall asleep! Damn that tryptophan in the turkey's white meat.

I remember so many of those games being against the Vikes or the Bears. My aunt in Chicago would call at the end of the Bears games if they won. She woke everyone up.

[Blue_Tires]

9. damn...the city did NOT get their money's worth out of the investment...

if i knew it would be that cheap, i would have found a few people to team up and put in a bid...what a sad end...

[stevedeshazer]

15. Poppy and Barb should have bought it to house the "underprivileged" anyway.

"And so many of the people in the arena here, you
know, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this (she
chuckles slightly) is working very well for them."

---that Quaker Oats dude that was First Lady.