[DetroitMan]

Lions considering moving practice facility to Downtown Detroit

The Detroit Lions moved back downtown when they opened Ford Field more than two decades ago. Now they’re toying with the idea of moving the rest of their operation there too.

Asked about rumors regarding potentially moving their Allen Park training facility and headquarters to either Ann Arbor or the Willow Run Airport area, team president Rod Wood mentioned the I-375 redevelopment area on the east side of Downtown Detroit as a possibility too. “I know there are a lot of rumors out there, and every time I talk about it, it leads to more people reaching out to me with ideas where we should be,” Wood said on Monday during the NFL owners meetings in Orlando, Fla. “I would say it’s in the early stages of evaluating it. We’re focused on potentially that, obviously downtown with the 375 project and the impact that’s going to have on the stadium and traffic flow. So we’ve got a real estate consultant who’s working on all those things, but very, very early stages of any announcements on a practice facility.”

The Lions have been based in Allen Park since building a $34 million facility there more than 20 years ago. The centerpiece of the 22-acre development is a 95,000-square-foot indoor practice field, while there are also training rooms, weight room, locker rooms and offices for executives and scouts.

“The Detroit Lions’ new headquarters will be a world-class facility that is elite among professional sports teams’ training centers,” Lions vice chairman Bill Ford Jr. said at the time.

https://www.mlive.com/lions/2024/03/...n-detroit.html