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Will we see soccer in Detroit? Pistons downtown?

Posted at 6:33 PM, Jun 01, 2016
and last updated 2016-06-02 12:24:22-04

Could Detroit see a professional soccer stadium at the stalled Wayne County jail site? We caught up with one man who's trying to make that happen - and we asked him about the Pistons, too.

Matt Cullen is CEO of Rock Ventures and he spoke with us at the 2016 Mackinac Policy Conference. A key player in Dan Gilbert's business enterprises, he's unsurprisingly bullish on Detroit.

For Cullen, bringing MLS soccer to the city would mean finding a different home for the unfinished jail that Wayne County began to build downtown.

"If we finish the jail there, for the next 50 years we're going to have that at the gateway of our downtown," Cullen said Wednesday. "It just isn't what should be there."

Instead, he spoke about creating a vast downtown Detroit sports and entertainment district that would extend further beyond the already existing stadium and theater sites in the city. He compared it to LA Live in downtown Los Angeles, but said it would be like that, "Times five."

Cullen's boss, Dan Gilbert, owns the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Pistons owner, Tom Gores, has been involved in the attempt to bring soccer to the city. So, what about the Pistons?

Does Matt Cullen imagine a downtown Detroit that includes an NBA team?

He sure does.

"We would love nothing better than to have a Finals game in downtown Detroit with the Cavaliers and the Pistons," he told 7 Action News.

 

Follow more news from the Mackinac Policy Conference here.