Lions President Rod Wood recently discussed the hot topic of protests by players during the playing of the national anthem and what possible renovations are on the horizon for Ford Field as part of a Q&A with Dave Birkett of the DETROIT FREE PRESS. Excerpts are below, some of which have been edited for brevity and clarity.
Q: What has come out of the meetings with players discussing the protests during the anthem?
Wood: There’s been a number of meetings with the players. ... They’re very close to having a set of initiatives that they want to focus on that are really going to be driving positive change and bringing attention to the issues that are there, that are important, that need to be addressed. And we’ve committed not only time and brand equity of the team, but financial resources to partner with them on those initiatives. So I’m not prepared to announce what they are, but that’ll be coming pretty soon.
Q: What are the initiatives?
Wood: We’re not going to solve social injustice by just talking about it. What are the tactics, what are the programs, what are the things that we could put money, time, marketing dollars, hopefully even partner with some of our corporate partners that would want to get behind some of those things, and move it off of the protest to talk about here’s what we’re doing in a positive way. And I think we’ve made really good progress with our team on that.
Q: What feedback have you gotten from corporate sponsors on the topic?
Wood: We’ve heard from a few, and it varies depending on the kind of business that each company might be in. I think the initial wave after that first weekend with the president’s tweet that kind of ignited this, there was a lot of reaction. I’m not sure how much of it was real, how much of it might have been orchestrated. In some cases, I think it was an effort to amplify what the president said as opposed to real reaction from people. But to the credit of most of our corporate sponsors, we’ve communicated with them and they kind of see the progress is being made and I hope as I said, that we’re going to come out the other side of this and have some of our corporate sponsors want to partner with us on some of these initiatives and get behind the positive change and ultimately benefit from this. And I do think there’s an opportunity to turn what was an issue for a couple weeks into a real positive. For the players, for the league, even for some of our corporate sponsors.
Q: How many sponsors, if any, have you lost because of the protests?
Wood: None.
Q: What ultimately do you see as the end game with this, both in terms of the impact the initiatives have in the community and how protests play out over the next year?
Wood: A benefit is it has created, and I can’t speak to every team but I think it’s across the league in most respects, a really positive dialogue between ownership and players, which doesn’t always exist. And hopefully that can lead to a lot of good things down the road.
Q: What’s next for Ford Field after spending $100M to upgrade the stadium this year?
Wood: We don’t have any big plans for next year. I think we’ll kind of absorb and get everything settled in. I think the next big thing would hopefully be to land one of these big events, bring something big to Ford Field and show it off. There’ll be a few things we do every off-season, small tweaks (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 10/27).
