The Detroit City FC professional soccer club intends to start demolishing the old Southwest Detroit Hospital in July so that it can finish building a 15,000-capacity soccer stadium on the site by spring 2027.

Two of the club's co-founders shared this schedule plan and other previously unreported details on the project during a Tuesday night, May 27, meeting of the Corktown Business Association.

Club co-founder Sean Mann described the schedule, which calls for an early 2026 start to vertical construction, as an "aggressive timeline," but one necessary to get the stadium finished in time. The project also includes a large multilevel parking deck to go near the future stadium.

"The goal is to get this done by the spring of '27," Mann said at the meeting, held at the Basilica of Ste. Anne de Detroit.

He and fellow soccer club co-founder Todd Kropp said that this summer they plan to reveal final renderings for the stadium as well as the venue's official name.

Early draft renderings for the planned Detroit City FC soccer stadium in Corktown. Final renderings are expected to be released this summer.

The new and privately financed soccer stadium will have a 15,000-person capacity, Mann said, or more than double the 7,200-person capacity of Keyworth Stadium in Hamtramck, where the team now plays.

Detroit City FC has acquired about 17 acres for the stadium project, which is centered on what is currently the abandoned Southwest Detroit Hospital at 2401 20th St., near Detroit's Corktown and Mexicantown neighborhoods.

The club officials said the basement of the 1974 hospital building right now is flooded with 1.5 million to 2 million gallons of water, a situation similar to what Ford Motor Co. faced when it began rehabbing Michigan Central Station in 2018.

The long-abandoned Southwest Detroit Hospital on March 12, 2025.

They plan to begin filtering and draining the hospital basement soon, the club officials said, probably starting next week. Demolition of the hospital then could begin in July and end sometime this summer.

Detroit City Council this month approved a $5.9 million Brownfield plan that would gradually reimburse Detroit City FC for the hospital's demolition costs over a period of 21 years. So far, that is the only public subsidy requested for the stadium project. The Brownfield plan is still subject to approval of the Michigan Strategic Fund.

Mann said the final to-be-revealed stadium plans will also feature some commercial space, "so 20th Street is not a dead zone."

Contact JC Reindl: 313-378-5460 or [email protected]. Follow him on X @JCReindl