Ford Field
- Detroit Lions (NFL ) (since 2002)
The Ford Field is an American football stadium in Detroit. It serves as the venue for the NFL games of the Detroit Lions and is completely covered. Unlike many other indoor stadiums, lots of natural light passes through large skylights and glazed corner walls into the interior.
Construction
The stadium was 1999 to 2002, built simultaneously with the adjacent baseball stadium Comerica Park in downtown Detroit to bring major sporting events again from the suburbs to the city center. The Detroit Lions, who had previously played in the Silverdome in Pontiac their games, attracted as much about how the Detroit Tigers, who now deliver their games in the ballpark on the other side of the road the Ford Fields.
The playing surface for football games was made of car tires, which had to recall the Bridgestone - Firestone.
The cost of the new building, approximately 300 million U.S. dollars have been applied to a large part by public funds and the sale of naming rights. The name of the stadium Ford secured for 20 years at a cost of 40 million U.S. dollars. At the same time, the Ford family, especially William Clay Ford Senior as owner of the Detroit Lions, integrated into the stadium operating company.
Spectator capacity
At normal football games of the Detroit Lions Ford Field can offer 65,000 square. By another seating capacity can be expanded up to 70,000. The basketball game between Michigan State University and the University of Kentucky on 13 December 2003 followed 79 129 fans, but some seats had been removed in favor of standing. In a wrestling event on 1 April 2007 (WWE Wrestlemania 23) a new visitor record was set with 80,103 spectators.
Major events
In addition to the football games of the Detroit Lions, as well as some college basketball games, the Ford Field is also the goal of the Detroit Marathon, the runners have mastered exactly at the 50 -yard line of the football field, the 42.195 -kilometer track.
The Ford Field on February 5, 2006 was the venue for the 40th Super Bowl. 2009 Final Four basketball tournament in the NCAA at Ford Field was to be discharged, a year later the Frozen Four, the equivalent in hockey.