DETROIT (WXYZ) — Anyone who has been to a Detroit City Football Club game knows the energy is electric.
Now that energy is on its way to Corktown.
The football club has announced that they have purchased the former Southwest Detroit hospital which has been abandoned for 18 years.
We set out to ask area businesses how they feel about the upcoming addition and met Patrick McDermott who is not only the General Manager of Lucky Detroit in Corktown, but also a huge Detroit City Football Club fan.
"I am so excited for that," said McDermott. "I’m a big DCFC fan, I go to games a lot and I always noticed that their stadium was so small compared to the turnout."
McDermott has been at DCFC games as the team's success has outgrown the stadium at Cass Tech in Detroit, and now Keyworth Stadium in Hamtrack.
He told us the team deserves this home they're now getting.
"I just remember going to my first game and being like ‘I can’t believe this is a league 2,'" said McDermott.
The minor league soccer team has wowed fans by upsetting top league teams, like recently The Houston Dynamo.
VIDEO: Examining the success of Detroit City FC
The club said the new permanent home is a 'huge step forward' for the organization and the Corktown area.
McDermott commented, "There's apartments going up, new hotels, the train station getting done. Everything just seems way bigger, way more interesting, way more going on."
We also spoke to Briant Sant who has been a barber at Detroit Barbershop in Corktown for 7 years.
He's even cut the hair of some of the club players and management.
He told us, "It’s nice to see them coming down here to Corktown. I think we’re in kind of a transition phase where they’re kind of figuring out the parking situation and it looks like there is going to be a lot of growth here in Corktown."
The stadium is scheduled to open in 2027, but those we spoke to said the buzz is already adding to the club, and city, energy.
"I think it’ll be a boom to business here in Corktown and just the neighborhood around," said Sant.
McDermott said, "It’s such a good story seeing them come up and build and now they have a real stadium with everything they wanted. I’m so excited, especially to be here in our little neck of the woods is so great."
