http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601079&sid=adFUGa0HXuZo#
Lions Ex-Stadium, Once Super Bowl Host, Sells for $7.25 a Seat
By John Gittelsohn
Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- It cost more than $55 million to build the Silverdome football stadium in Pontiac, Michigan. Yesterday, it sold for the price of a one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan.
The former home of the U.S. National Football League’s Detroit Lions sold at auction for $583,000, or about $7.25 per seat, as the debt-ridden city of Pontiac sought to raise cash.
The area’s unemployment rate is 35 percent and emergency financial manager Fred Leeb was hired in March as Pontiac faced a $6.5 million deficit on a $100 million general fund budget, plus $103 million in bond debt, Leeb said.
“You could say Pontiac is in a depression, not just a recession,” he said in a telephone interview today. “We have to work with the facts at hand, not just dreams.”
The winning bid for the stadium went to a group of real estate investors from Toronto who plan to use the stadium for sporting events, including men’s and women’s major league soccer games, said Leeb. The names of the winning bidders probably will be announced within a week and the deal is required to close in 45 days, he said.
After deducting the costs of the auction and its promotion, Pontiac will pocket about $420,000 for the stadium, which seats roughly 80,000, Leeb said.
Highest Unemployment
“These are hard times,” Pontiac Mayor Clarence Phillips said on a video posted on the Oakland Press Web site. “But, to be frank, I really expected a lot more than we actually received.”
Pontiac is about 30 miles northwest of Detroit and has a population of about 66,000.
The Silverdome opened in 1975 and cost taxpayers $55.7 million to build and $1.5 million a year to maintain, Leeb said. By contrast, the New York Giants and the New York Jets will play next year in a new stadium estimated to cost $1.6 billion.
Over the past decade, Pontiac spurned offers of $17 million, $18.5 million and $22 million for the Silverdome, the Oakland Press reported.
“We proved nobody’s interested in paying that much because we held an auction that was advertised worldwide,” Leeb said.
Property values in the Detroit area have plummeted. Homes there have lost 28 percent of their value since 2000, according to the S&P/Case Shiller home price index.
The Lions vacated the Silverdome in 2002 to play at Ford Field in downtown Detroit. Since then, the stadium that once hosted the Super Bowl has been used for tractor pulls and auto auctions and served as a staging ground for construction materials, Leeb said.
It’s been a long decline since the San Francisco 49ers defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 26-21 in Super Bowl XVI, Jan. 24, 1982, before a crowd of 81,270.
“It was state of the art 20 years ago,” Andrew E. Meisner, treasurer of Oakland county, where Pontiac is located, said in a phone interview. “It’s been a symbol of neglect.”
To contact the reporter on this story: John Gittelsohn in New York at johngitt@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: November 17, 2009 13:11 EST
Lions Ex-Stadium, Once Super Bowl Host, Sells for $7.25 a Seat
By John Gittelsohn
Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- It cost more than $55 million to build the Silverdome football stadium in Pontiac, Michigan. Yesterday, it sold for the price of a one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan.
The former home of the U.S. National Football League’s Detroit Lions sold at auction for $583,000, or about $7.25 per seat, as the debt-ridden city of Pontiac sought to raise cash.
The area’s unemployment rate is 35 percent and emergency financial manager Fred Leeb was hired in March as Pontiac faced a $6.5 million deficit on a $100 million general fund budget, plus $103 million in bond debt, Leeb said.
“You could say Pontiac is in a depression, not just a recession,” he said in a telephone interview today. “We have to work with the facts at hand, not just dreams.”
The winning bid for the stadium went to a group of real estate investors from Toronto who plan to use the stadium for sporting events, including men’s and women’s major league soccer games, said Leeb. The names of the winning bidders probably will be announced within a week and the deal is required to close in 45 days, he said.
After deducting the costs of the auction and its promotion, Pontiac will pocket about $420,000 for the stadium, which seats roughly 80,000, Leeb said.
Highest Unemployment
“These are hard times,” Pontiac Mayor Clarence Phillips said on a video posted on the Oakland Press Web site. “But, to be frank, I really expected a lot more than we actually received.”
Pontiac is about 30 miles northwest of Detroit and has a population of about 66,000.
The Silverdome opened in 1975 and cost taxpayers $55.7 million to build and $1.5 million a year to maintain, Leeb said. By contrast, the New York Giants and the New York Jets will play next year in a new stadium estimated to cost $1.6 billion.
Over the past decade, Pontiac spurned offers of $17 million, $18.5 million and $22 million for the Silverdome, the Oakland Press reported.
“We proved nobody’s interested in paying that much because we held an auction that was advertised worldwide,” Leeb said.
Property values in the Detroit area have plummeted. Homes there have lost 28 percent of their value since 2000, according to the S&P/Case Shiller home price index.
The Lions vacated the Silverdome in 2002 to play at Ford Field in downtown Detroit. Since then, the stadium that once hosted the Super Bowl has been used for tractor pulls and auto auctions and served as a staging ground for construction materials, Leeb said.
It’s been a long decline since the San Francisco 49ers defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 26-21 in Super Bowl XVI, Jan. 24, 1982, before a crowd of 81,270.
“It was state of the art 20 years ago,” Andrew E. Meisner, treasurer of Oakland county, where Pontiac is located, said in a phone interview. “It’s been a symbol of neglect.”
To contact the reporter on this story: John Gittelsohn in New York at johngitt@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: November 17, 2009 13:11 EST
