Detroit City Football Club broke ground today, July 15, 2026 on AlumniFi Field, a 15,000-seat stadium in southwest Detroit that will become the club’s new home for the 2028 USL Championship season. Mayor Mary Sheffield joined several hundred fans and officials for the ceremony at Michigan Avenue and 20th Street, the site of the long-vacant former Southwest Detroit Hospital.

The stadium anchors a broader $198 million mixed-use development that also includes a 421-space parking structure and a 76-unit apartment building, filling in a stretch of land between the Corktown and Mexicantown neighborhoods. City officials project the surrounding development will generate $25 million in annual economic impact. Last fall, Detroit approved a $2 million community benefits agreement along with a tax subsidy to support the project.

Design and Construction Team

Barton Malow Co., the Southfield-based construction firm behind Little Caesars Arena, is serving as general contractor and construction manager. HOK, working alongside ROSSETTI, is the architect of record for the stadium’s overall structure, while Ferndale-based Disbrow Iannuzzi Architects is designing the 170,000 square feet of interior space, including concourses, VIP suites and team facilities. The stadium is intended to evoke the feel of a classic European football ground, with a natural grass pitch and three permanent grandstands under canopies, and will also be able to host concerts and community events. Barton Malow plans to incorporate a permanent installation honoring the site’s history as Southwest Detroit Hospital.

A Delayed but Advancing Timeline

The project was originally targeted for a spring 2027 opening but has shifted a year to spring 2028, aligning with the USL Championship season. DCFC currently plays at the 8,000-seat Keyworth Stadium in Hamtramck. The club, which also fields a women’s team in the USL W League and runs a statewide youth network of more than 5,000 players, was founded at Detroit’s Cass Tech High School before relocating to Keyworth. Its ownership includes roughly 2,700 fan-shareholders who bought in during a 2020 fundraising push that helped the club survive the pandemic, raising $1.48 million for about 10% equity.

AlumniFi Field is one of three professional sports venues arriving in Detroit in the coming years, alongside a Professional Women’s Hockey League franchise debuting later this year and a WNBA team set to begin play in 2029.

Elsewhere in stadium development: Orlando is pursuing a far larger venue of its own — a proposed $2 billion, 45,000-seat domed stadium tied to an MLB expansion bid, with backers projecting more than $72 billion in economic impact over three decades.

AlumniFi Field Factsheet

• Location: Southwest Detroit, at Michigan Avenue and 20th Street
• Capacity: 15,000 seats
• Stadium cost: $153 million
• Total Development Cost: $198 million
• General Contractor: Barton Malow Co.
• Lead Architect: HOK, with ROSSETTI
• Interior Architect: Disbrow Iannuzzi Architects
• Expected Opening: Spring 2028
• Tenant: Detroit City FC (USL Championship)