Detroit Businessman Roger Faulkner Backs Gilbert-Gores Plan To Bring MLS To City

Detroit-area businessman Roger Faulkner, who has an extensive background in soccer, said that he "was impressed" by the plan unveiled by Cavaliers Owner Dan Gilbert and Pistons Owner Tom Gores to bring a MLS expansion team to Detroit, according to George Sipple of the DETROIT FREE PRESS. Gilbert last Wednesday "unveiled plans for a 20,000-25,000 capacity soccer-specific stadium to be built on the site of the unfinished Wayne County jail site" and "hopes to land an MLS team as early" as '20. Faulkner was a "key member of the Detroit World Cup host committee" in '94 and was also a former General Partner and Exec Dir of the NASL Detroit Express. Faulkner said, "It's dynamic in what it does for the city of Detroit. It would be absolutely phenomenal. I think the (stadium) design was obviously very preliminary in many respects, but as a concept it was a phenomenal presentation and very, very exciting." Sipple noted it will "take a lot of work for Gilbert and Gores to realize their dream of bringing an MLS team to Detroit" (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 5/1). A DETROIT NEWS editorial wrote under the header, "County Can't Help Build Soccer Stadium." Wayne County taxpayers "can't be expected to front any of the money for the development" and also "can't be expected to contribute to the soccer stadium." Wayne County is "just emerging from near insolvency, thanks to a consent agreement with the state, and still has extensive pension shortfalls to address." The editorial: "It's exciting to hear about visionary developments for Detroit, and hopefully they can come to fruition. But this latest one has to be steeped in the reality that taxpayers have nothing to contribute" (DETROIT NEWS, 5/1).