With the dream of having an MLS team in Detroit in limbo, is the Silverdome project scaring new investors from forming a NASL or USL-Pro club in Detroit? I mean if I had the kind of money to support a team I'd be looking towards Grand Rapids as a potential candidate site, not because there'd be more fans but because the MLS would be further away. I mean who wants to be up scaled by a MLS club five to ten years down the road.
NASL perhaps, but not USL-Pro. Dan Duggan, who owns the PDL Michigan Bucks, also has the USL-Pro territorial rights for Detroit. Personally, I don't think a minor-league pro team would do well in Detroit in any sport, soccer included. Specifically for soccer, I think that so many soccer fans in Detroit follow foreign teams and leagues that MLS would have a hard time cracking their radar, let alone some NASL team. I think MLS would thrive here, but not in a Toronto/Seattle/Philly/Portland kind of way. In a market like Detroit, this is always an issue. That's why most NASL owners in MLS-sized markets look at NASL as a start for their own MLS ambitions. That's misguided, IMO, and would be especially so in Detroit, again IMO.
We were working with a group (outside of the Silverdome owners) to ping MCS members to gauge interest in a USL-Pro club. Believe there was a poll on our website for it. Not sure what came of it as we haven't heard much back from them but my guess is over the next few years DCFC will continue to grow and work on moving up to higher divisions.