The new football stadium built in
downtown Detroit for the Lions franchise (
NFL). The
Ford name is attached to it because of the financial contribution the
Ford Motor Company made to the stadium project. (Some 40 million dollars over 20 years for the
Naming rights.) The total cost was estimated to be
300 million dollars). Although it is a
domed stadium, it has an unusual construction configuration, in that it was built attached to an existing
warehouse that was rehabbed and used as one wall of the building.
The Lions had played the last 26 seasons in a suburb, some 30 miles north of the city. The new stadium is in the middle of a redevelopment area of the city and across the street from the new baseball stadium, which opened in 2001.
True to form (the Lions have not won a league championship since 1957), the team was blown out in the first exhibition game in their new home. In their first regular season game, they lost to the Green Bay Packers.
Update: Super Bowl XL was played there 2/5/06, the second Super Bowl played in the Detroit area.
some info from: avalyn
detroitlions.com and detroitfreepress.com