DETROIT — The city of Detroit is ramping up its preparations for a WNBA team to return to Michigan for the first time since 2009.
MLive has learned that the old Uniroyal site on the Detroit riverfront is being considered as a potential location for a WNBA practice facility and youth sports complex as part of a broader plan to bring the league back to Detroit.
The practice facility — and team headquarters — would include around-the-clock training and amenities for players and coaches, state-of-the-art designated courts, locker rooms, workout facilities, and office and lounge space.
Securing the location for the new sports complex would go a long way toward showcasing Detroit’s potential as home to the next WNBA expansion team.
On Jan. 31, Pistons owner Tom Gores formally submitted a bid to bring the league back to Detroit, representing a prominent ownership group that includes Detroit Lions owner Sheila Hamp, General Motors CEO Mary Barra, Basketball Hall of Famers Grant Hill and Chris Webber, Lions quarterback Jared Goff and his wife, Christen, Arn and Nancy Tellem, and Grammy Award-winning artist Eminem.
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“This is an exciting opportunity to welcome the WNBA back to Detroit and bring additional investment and economic activity into the city,” Gores said in a statement. “For the WNBA, this is home, and our bid represents an unprecedented opportunity for the league to come full circle and effect a long-hoped-for Detroit homecoming. No city is more prepared to embrace the team as a community asset that drives unity and common ground.”
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The ownership group is aiming to become one of four new expansion franchises the WNBA plans to add by the 2028 season, aligning with the league’s objective to have 16 teams within the next three years.
If Detroit is successful, the new expansion team would play its games at Little Caesars Arena, home of the Pistons and the Detroit Red Wings.
Michigan has been without a WNBA team since the conclusion of the 2009 season, when the three-time league champion Detroit Shock relocated to Tulsa, Oklahoma, becoming the Tulsa Shock.
In 2015, the team officially changed its name to the Dallas Wings, which it has been known as since the 2016 season.