Between Comerica Park, Ford Field, Little Caesars Arena, The Big House (University of Michigan's football stadium) and Keyworth Stadium, what are the best stadiums in Southeast Michigan? We discuss and rank them in a gaming-style S tier list. Of course, we'd love to hear your thoughts - dailydetroit@gmail.com.
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Jer Staes: Hello, and welcome to your Daily Detroit! It is Wednesday, January 8th, 2025. I am Jer Staes, coming to you from our studio at TechTown in beautiful Detroit, Michigan, the Paris of the Midwest.
Joining me at the table is none other than the Prince of Brightmoor. I think we might actually see you twice this week.
Norris Howard: That's right.
It's good to see you, Norris Howard.
Norris: It's good to be back, man. Jared Goff. Jared Goff!
Jer: And you don't even like football, but you're into it.
Norris: You know what, man? There's something special happening, and I just want to mention it. We're not going to spend all day on it, but it's my first show back in the new year.
And I just got to say it is a very incredible thing with the Lions are doing right now and let's hope they can go all the way home field advantage, baby.
Jer: Oh, it's going to be crazy in the city.
Norris: Man, and I'm right in the thick of it in Downtown, man. Listen ...
Jer: So you're here for the party?
Norris: Do you have any idea how many drunk people I've seen stumbling, bumbling around downtown? It's been great. I think I'm going to start making like a People of the Detroit Lions, like Substack. You know, like how you have the people of Walmart?
I'm going to do that. So if you ...
Are you old enough to remember Tumblr?
Am I old enough to remember Tumblr? I was a Tumblr fiend. I was one of the top creators on Tumblr when it came to posting stuff about Sailor Moon and Naruto.
I feel like your image series is definitely more Tumblr. It feels like the Tumblr.
It would be more Tumblr. Yes, it would be very aesthetic.
I want to give a quick shout out to Luciano Marcon, who helped me out today, as the studio is looking refreshed.
You can go on our social media. Also, in our newsletter in the next couple of days, see some video of how things are looking over here. [We are] trying to keep this place ship-shaped together. And welcome to, in 2025, Detroit's Living Room.
Yeah, that's right, man. So you're going to be seeing a lot more from us. And I mean that, seeing a lot more of video, our newsletter is going to become a much more important product for us in 2025.
You know, a lot of people are like, "Oh, Hey, do I need more email?" And it's like, actually, I was surprised that people actually like emails for news. And I think in the world of algorithms, keeping us between us and local stuff, it's important to do.
And a lot of times algorithms aren't the best for local content. Because they really favor the biggest conversation possible. And when you care about Detroit and Metro Detroit, that's kind of a subset.
It's a niche thing. We're a niche taste, Norris Howard.
That's right. But sometimes an acquired taste is the best taste. That's what my father told me when he handed me a bottle of honey brown beer when I was 21 years old.
Was that ... good?
No, when I drank it, not at all. And now I always find myself craving it randomly. But yes, so we appreciate everybody. In 2025, you guys are going to be hearing and seeing a lot more from us.
And I'm excited to see what we got coming up.
Norris Howard, let's get to the meat of the show.
That's right.
There was a headline I saw in another publication. I will name it, he Detroit Free Press, and part of their opinions section that inspired me to talk about some other content.
And the headline, I thought was interesting. Now that we're paying attention to the Lions, Ford Field is ugly. And this guy from Grand Blanc, Marshall Kossman, said that Sunday night was the first time that they had actually looked at Ford Field from an exterior, and they said Ford Field is really ugly.
I don't think I agree with him. But it got me thinking, let's talk about Detroit's arenas, and let's rank them.
Okay.
And the pluses and the minuses of something that's like so dear.
Yeah, because listen, this is a sports town.
The number one way you got to interface with it is these stadiums. They take a massive footprint in the city. They employ a lot of people, and they're really important. They are part of the culture of your town.
You think about certain stadiums, Fenway Park, Wrigley Field, Dodger Stadium, Yankee Stadium, they are a part of the fabric of those cities.
We're going to talk about four stadiums, three in the city, one in an enclave.
All right.
And one in Ann Arbor.
Okay.
We want to keep it within like driving distance.
Absolutely.
Listener group distance. Thank you to all of our listeners out in Ann Arbor. We appreciate you. So, I think we got to start all the way at the top.
Michigan Stadium Peak S tier.
OK, so you're tearing right off the bat. You're going to you're saying the big house for the S tier S tier. Why?
It's got the look. It's got the sound. It's got the size.
It's got the history. It's got everything. It has all the cool stuff. And it's college. We could be Spartan. You don't need it to be like, you know, incredible. You don't need it to have all the modern fixings with the press boxes and all that. No, go sit, freeze to death, and watch football, and it does that.
And you and 110,000 of your friends can do it all at the same time.
It is truly like a national event, things at the Big House. So you know what, I will allow it. I'm not gonna challenge you. Yeah, I think that's the one we will agree on and say Michigan Stadium, top tier.
Why don't we address the question, is Ford Field ugly? Let's talk about Ford Field.
All right, I'm making people mad here. I think Ford Field's hideous. I think the exterior is terrible. I think there is one side, that southeastern side, that's kind of built into those offices over there.
That looks cool, because that was the original edifice of the stuff that was over there.
Like a warehouse or something
I don't remember. Was it a Hudson's warehouse? I think it was a Hudson's warehouse or something like that.
That looks cool, but when you go to the southwestern side off of Brush, awful, awful. And then you keep going.
What about that freeway side?
It is vomit inducing. It's just so bad. It just looks like something out of a 1999 office catalog.
That means it is kind of of its era.
It does. And I didn't like the way stuff looked back then either. So just for me, I think it's hideous. I actually think the inside of Ford Field is way better looking than its exterior.
I love the concourses there, and some of the the way that they've worked with the spaces and the flow can be really nice over there. I really like the interior of Ford Field. I really hadn't thought about the exterior.
I always think about Ford Field from that direction over by the courthouse, because that's the way I see it the most.
Yeah.
It's a big door. I guess I think about it that way. It's a big door.
You know what I do think is a missed opportunity between Ford Field and Comerica Park? Retail and restaurant activation. That street, I think it's Brush, should all be hopping when it's game day. Not just the Elwood [Bar & Grill] happening that's there that they moved from Woodward.
But there is so much street. The whole street thing about that. I think part of the idea was with building Ford Field in office space was to have more of that like neighborhood feel. One of the things that I love about places like Wrigley Field and things like that is you have that activity.
And look, I know for various reasons we're not we're not going to be seeing anything happening with those parking lots out front of Comerica Park for a while. My 2025 resolution, one of them is to not let stuff bug me that I can't control.
And I believe I might be in the grave before District Detroit happens.
No, you're right.
So since that's the case or might be the case, or at least it's going to be a few years, why don't we reconfigure that area where you could actually make that a really hoppin' street?
Yeah, I think it's possible. I think there's still some ways you would have to maneuver around it because the thing is, is that both stadiums on Brush come right up to the curb. There is no space for any additional frontage there.
That's why I'm saying you'd have to reconfigure some things, but anything's possible, right? Well, anything is possible. It's not like the end zone's right up against Brush Street.
No, that's true, but it is a way to figure it out. I think you could do it. I just think as it stands currently for how everything looks, it would be difficult to do. That echoes a problem of some of the design in Downtown Detroit, where you've got buildings that don't have retail entrances.
So it's like you've got these blocks, especially in the financial district, where it's just like an edifice.
Yup, can't do nothing with it.
Yeah, I think of the State Savings Bank, really cool building, hasn't been active for a while, been kind of held on by Dan Gilbert's Bedrock, shined up a little bit, but it's a really difficult piece because it's so kind of blocked off.
So I like the interior Ford field. I don't know if it's ugly, but it sure ain't pretty.
It's not pretty. I think the interior Ford field saves it. But the exterior is like... Boo-boo. So I would say personally for me, you got to put in like D+ [tier].
Oh yeah. If I had to give it a higher for the interior Ford Field, it's definitely not A tier, but it's definitely like not C tier. I think I'm gonna go with more of like a B tier for Ford Field as a whole I'll meet you halfway in policy.
I'll accept it. I'll accept it.
And if people don't know I just realized that people might not know what we're talking about as far as a tier list in gaming. So why don't we explain?
Yeah, here's the thing.
So a tier list you rank all the things from, usually s to like f or basement tier. S is above A; s is like this is the best of the best cannot be stopped or cannot be challenged in any way. This is the best of the best, and that's why I put Michigan Stadium there because who don't like the Big House. Tell me somebody who doesn't like the Big House.
Spartan fans.
All right, but we're not we're not counting them because they're out in Lansing.
Yeah, you are a doggy hour and a half away. Yeah, your comments about Ford Field make me think though. And this is something that I've kind of got the vibe on, is if we're going to host another Super Bowl. I bet some sort of modernizations or updates to Ford Field are going to happen.
It has to happen. I think especially in that northern side over by the freeway.
You got to do something over there.
Build a hotel. So, imagine you get rid of that area by the freeway. What if you built a hotel connected to the football stadium?
I'm going to tell you what to make it all hit, if the 75 cap comes along now, you will have a lot more real estate to play with and you could kind of connect all of that and you could connect to Brush Park. You can connect downtown brush to brush part and now you could do so much more right there Let's go across the street and talk about Comerica Park.
I'm gonna make some people mad here. Comerica is by far my least favorite stadium in the entire city, might be in the entire Metro.
Strong disagree.
I understand that. Here's why feel this way. Number one:
It's gigantic for no real reason.
You're talking about the field?
The field itself is gigantic.
Okay.
For no real reason, right? So you got that. I think obviously the center field, the ivy, and all that with the statues and all that. That's cool. That's fine.
The fountain
With the fountain? Sure.
Okay.
I think the only thing saving Comerica is its vista when you sit at home plate, and you get to see the skyline behind it. That saves it from being absolute basement tier to me.
I completely disagree.
I think the concourses are too small. I think the seating is ... there's way too much seating. I think you could take out 8,000 seats and make it a much better stadium I think you first of all by all being black steel work.
I think it completely ruins the rest of the area because when you look at the rest of the area, there's so much brown, and there's blue. And, there's green, and there's so much more colorful. And then, you have the black steel thingy, and it's not my favorite.
If we're gonna knock out 8,000 seats, can we get seats that somebody who's, I don't know, of an average size or larger can fit in? Because I cannot sit on the second deck.
But that's part of my thing. I think there's ways to improve Comerica Park. And listen, I know a lot of people hated it. I really miss Tiger Stadium. I really miss it, sure.
I have so many fond memories of it. It should have been maintained a lot better by the end.
Yeah, sure, we could talk about the obstructive views and the I-beams and all that, I get it. But I loved having a tight, close hitters park that felt vertical, and everybody's on top of you. And you could sneeze and hit a triple. I love Tiger Stadium.
My problem with Comerica Park is not necessarily with the building as much. I see some of your things, I just don't see them as negative as you do.
I don't like how narrow some of the seats are. What I don't like is the lack of activities around it, where there isn't stuff right across the street from it. And that goes into my lament at the beginning about the parking lots and stuff, because there should be parking, absolutely. But also, there needs to be street life, and I feel like we need to prioritize street life around here.
I agree, but I think because of the way that Comerica Park is built, because it's built wide, there's no verticality really to Comerica Park outside of behind home plate.
So because it's built so wide, it makes it very difficult for you to create any sort of street or retail frontage to make new stuff. So even like Ford Field, because Ford Field is built more vertically, if you wanted to, you could put storefronts along Brush.
They would go into the stadium, but then you have dual entry. You can have on days you walk in from the street, you have other days you walk in from the stadium. That would be amazing, but you don't have that currently.
And I think with Comerica, it would be incredibly difficult to do that by virtue of how it's built.
Alright, I think we're going to disagree on this one.
We are.
I think that Comerica, with some of the improvements they've made like the better video screen things like that ...
Oh, that's cool. That stuff's great!
I think it's B tier.
Oh B?!
It's not A tier.
Bro. B?! You're talking about the average?! You're talking about average of all MLB stadiums in the league for me.
Okay.
And like nah, it's not that. I've been to like 25 baseball parks across the country, and I think Comerica, certain people are very more romantic about it, but for me, it doesn't hit the mark. I think it's C minus if not personally ...
Would you stand on D tier?
I stand on D.
Okay. Little Caesars Arena.
Okay. The exterior is A1 outside of the pizza man on top of the dome.
The interior feels like I'm walking into work at a corporate office.
Well, that's because there are corporate offices inside Little Caesars.
I swear to gosh it feels like I'm walking in the lobby of a healthcare provider.
Yeah, so for me, low-key, I think the amenities of Little Caesars are A1; I think is really great. I think it's a missed opportunity to have restaurants only open on game day, personally.
Oh, don't even get me started about that, because they could add so much life to things. I know it would take an investment.
Yep.
I know that you have to put money in over time to get people into the habit of coming down on non-game days, but what a great addition would it be to have, you know, the pizza joint or whatever, like these things open where it's actually part of the neighborhood.
You've got Brush Park across the street. You've got people outside of Metro Detroit and around Metro Detroit know where that place is, and if you created programming that is worth coming to, they would come to it.
Yeah, I think it would be a great opportunity. You already have the ability to, because you've built it with street front in your mind. Shout out to, what is it back there in the ... what is it Bassan?
Yeah, Bassan.
Yeah. That's in the, what's that? That is open. Yeah, that's open.
But the thing about it is, the interior of Little Caesars is so vertigo inducing. It's so tall, and I get it, they had to build it that way, but I think that knocks it down to me, because I think the only other arena to make me actually dizzy when I sat in its highest tiers was Joe Louis. Joe Louis made me almost fall out.
There was a reason why lots of people did not feel that sad about losing Joe Louis.
Yeah.
There were reasons. I mean, you're on the riverfront and you've got this closed off box. Little Caesars is definitely an improvement over that.
I would agree.
Last time I went to Little Caesars, I went to the Claressa Shields fight.
Nice.
I was on the floor. Yeah. And I realized how vertical, because I've gone to other games, like suites, or I've gone to the stadium or whatever, different levels.
It is really vertical then. When you're on the floor, you realize just how vertical that place is. Or when you're going down the stairways to get down to the floor, it is so vertical in there.
I have sat in every tier of Little Caesars. I have sat on the floor I've sat in the hundred level. I've sat in the club. I've said even all the way in the gondolas at the top. Right? It's almost too tall for a stadium.
Comerica is too short, and Little Caesars is too tall.
Yeah.
Inside.
Inside. Inside. But, I think what saves Little Caesars is the modern amenities.
The amenities are great.
The amenities are great. It's easy to find your seat easy to get around. All that good stuff. So for me, B.
I want the concourses to look like sports concourses.
I feel that. So, you want vomitoriums?
Okay, so I remember going as a kid to Tigers Stadium. Remember these places?
Mm-hmm.
And for me like that kind of ... it's just there is just something about it where it just didn't doesn't feel sportsy. I can't put my finger on it. It feels like it's like a little bit of the Pistons and a little bit of the Red Wings. I feel like there should be like a ... like it should feel ... I don't know. It just doesn't have it. It feels ...
I'm gonna tell you, and people are gonna get real mad at me. ... If The Palace was in the city, people would love it.
Oh! Tell me more! It's just that my gut disagrees with that.
No, see ... I feel like the biggest gripe people had with The Palace is it was in Auburn Hills, but I think for how The Palace was built, and when it was built, if it had been in the city, I think we'd still be going to The Palace. I don't think that'd be a Little Caesars Arena. We'd still be in The Palace.
Okay. What's your tier for The Palace ... for Little Caesars?
Oh Little Caesars? ... I think B.
I'll agree with B.
I think B.
I'll agree. My gripes about the insides are an aesthetic choice.
Yes! Yes, but I think it is the best stadium we have in the city besides the Big House in the region. And, I think it's great, and I've been to concerts. I've been to sports [games]. I think it's a great multi-purpose arena. I think it does the job perfectly well.
Last on the list, and we're including it because it's only going to be around for so long. I mean it will still stand, but it won't be in the vernacular that long because we're going to be getting a new stadium. The new stadium ... We don't know plans. We don't know any of that stuff so we can't even theoretically ... yeah can't speculate it. But for our fans of Detroit City FC, because I know I'm going to get emails.
We had to talk about it. We got to talk about Keyworth Stadium.
Let me tell you.
I am so torn on it.
Let me tell you something. I am too because the romanticism of Keyworth is incredible.
I want to love Keyworth in the same way that I love Wriggly.
Exactly! Right? And the thing about it is, as someone who has been to football matches, soccer matches in Europe, that is how those stadiums are built. They are nestled in neighborhoods.
You walk past people's front doors to get to the stadium. I mean, I went to go see an Arsenal match. That is a 65,000 seat stadium, and it is in the middle of a neighborhood. You get off of The Tube station, and there are people's houses right there, right across the street from the stadium.
That's romantic to me. That's cool. But the thing about Keyworth is the age of Keyworth. Also, its location, meaning ...
The parking is not... I mean, not that I want to see parking lots, but there are neither garages nor parking lots nor any plan.
Yeah, which also becomes a detriment to the residents that live there. Unfortunately, we don't have great public transit. We don't have the ability for people to just hop off of a subway or elevated train and catch it there.
So, parking does become an issue for residents as well as people coming to the matches. And then, also, you got to talk about the amenities of the stadium. Because of the limited footprint of the stadium, you can only do so much.
And it's a temporary deal. It's not owned by the club.
Yeah.
They share it. There just isn't the ability to do what there needs to be done that could really take Detroit City FC to the next level.
Yeah. And the facilities, even for the players, aren't necessarily the best. And, you know, and this is not a detriment to the club. I'm not bad mouthing the club. And I say, the stadium is what it is.
And it is time for them to have larger aspirations in terms of the stadium, especially when looking at their other contemporaries in the USL. So like ... you go to a Nashville, you go to a Charleston, you go to any of these stadiums, and they're just on a different level.
But, they don't have the same feeling that Keyworth has when it's rocking. It's summertime. You know, 7:30pm kick-off. Smoke is everywhere. It's incredible.
That will be key. And I'm looking forward to seeing what developments happen in 2025 around actual groundbreaking.
Yeah.
Actual tax credits, and all that kind of stuff, because that stuff is going to need to start popping out in the news soon for the timeline to stay.
Yeah, I agree. And, you know, I just hope that, you know, that same culture moves over to this new stadium whenever it appears.
And we'll see what happens, because I think that there is potential for us to have a new entry as a top tier stadium. I almost hate to give this one a tier. Because I need to, it feels almost unfair.
It feels unfair.
Yeah.
But we got to do it. We got to do it.
I think you have to say, just because of the nature of the facilities, you have to say, like, D, as a stadium, in a vacuum.
As an experience ..
As an experience, A plus.
Yeah.
As an experience, A plus. But actually, because of the experience, we'll bump it up, I'll say S. I think the experience takes Keyworth to a whole nother level. But I think the facilities, unfortunately, it's like a hundred years old.
So for a town that loves our sports as much as we do, we've had some harsh judging here.
Yeah. Because I think, well, first of all, we finally getting some winners around here, but I think we can have cooler stadiums.
As somebody who makes it my business to go to sporting events in other towns, that's one of my favorite things to do. I don't feel any of our stadiums feel magical to me. You go to, even though Yankee Stadium's new, it still feel magical.
Outside of the Big House?
Yeah. Outside of the Big House. The Big House is magical. That's magic. It's something else there. It's hollow ground. But I feel like none of the newer stadiums quite have that same level of magic.
And obviously, history plays a big part in that. But there are some newer stadiums that are starting to feel like that.
If the Lions win a Super Bowl, does that increase Ford Field just because of the the energy factor?
Maybe, but it really depends because the way I feel about it is you still don't win the championship at home in the NFL. You win the World Series at your stadium or your opponent's stadium, but you win the World Series there. It's not a neutral site.
And by the way, I know that Ford Field was actually completed in 2002. But it was designed in the 90s, so it kind of has that leftover ... just because I know somebody's going to be like, "Well, actually!"
Yeah, no, but it just it kind of feels like Montgomery Ward a little bit.
I'm going to leave that there. Norris Howard, I appreciate you.
I appreciate you as well, Jer!
And of course, I appreciate our listeners, each and every one of you, even if you disagree with us. In fact, if you agree or disagree with us, I want to hear from you. dailydetroit@gmail.com. dailydetroit@gmail.com. Write us a note. Record a little voice memo on your phone, and call us idiots. Whatever you want to do. I want to hear from you because I think this is an important part of Detroit culture.
I think this is something that ties all of us together. And if there's anything we can do here on Daily Detroit, it's some real talk, my friend.
Yes, sir. And listen, man, don't take this too serious, y'all. All right? We're just having a little bit of fun to talk about some stuff we love. So, that's it.
Well, with that, I'm Jer Staes.
And I'm Norris Howard.
Thank you so much for listening. Remember that you are somebody, and we'll see you around Detroit. Talk tomorrow.
