Indoor Soccer Complex Could Come to Dearborn

At Tuesday night's meeting of the Dearborn Recreation and Parks Commission, it was announced that two developers are looking into building an multi-field indoor soccer facility in Dearborn.

Director of Recreation and Parks Greg Orner confirmed that there have been talks amongst the two companies, the city, the Dearborn Soccer Club and Ford Land—the land developer of Ford Motor Company–to construct the facility. One developer, he said, is significantly closer to making the commitment.

Much of the success of the project rides on the popular Dearborn Soccer Club, which hosts a multitude of soccer teams for all ages and has been in existence for more than 20 years.

“I think the soccer club (was) looked at as an entity that's going to provide a ton of business for this building,” Orner said. “I think their contribution is the 1,600 soccer players that are really going to flock to this facility.”

While that group is looking at multiple locations in the city, there is one location that Orner said could solve multiple problems facing the Recreation Department: the .

Currently, however, the Rotunda Ballfields are in serious need of repair, Commissioner Louie Moussa said at the meeting.

“The fields are horrible, everything has to be revamped,” he said. “I don't know how they play on those fields.”

Orner said in an ideal deal, the business building the indoor soccer facility would also then renovate the ballfields. The land, which is currently owned by Ford, would be leased or bought cheaply by the city in return for absorbing baseball teams from Ford's baseball league—which currently play at Rotunda—into the city's.

The area, which covers about 40 acres, could fit could three or four hardball diamonds and placing them in the same area would make upkeep and maintenance easier too, Orner said.

In addition, could potentially play at those fields, too.

Orner, however, stressed that this discussion is all highly speculative and that Rotunda Ballfields is not the developer's first choice for a soccer facility. He added that it's not even assured that the indoor facility will come to Dearborn.

Because of the speculative nature of the matter, Orner did not want to release the names of the companies that had been in talks with the Dearborn Soccer Club and the city. Furthermore, any kind of completion or start time is unknown, but Orner added that the city will be meeting with Ford Land in the next few weeks to discuss the project.