DETROIT – The city of Detroit will soon offer residents a new and previously unavailable athletic field option.
Chandler Park already has ball fields and playgrounds for the kids, and soon, it will have an indoor sports complex offering soccer and half a dozen other sports for young and old alike.
The groundbreaking ceremony had $14 million provided by the White House American Rescue Plan Act.
It’s a vast expanse-130,000 square feet and brings to the city the kinds of amenities we find in other areas across the state.
As a soccer dad, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan saw his children play in domes like the Total Soccer Dome in Wixom.
“Families came from 25 miles around and enjoyed that experience. Over the years, I watched as multi-sport domes opened in Western Wayne and other parts of Oakland and Macomb, and I thought, when are the children of Detroit going to get that kind of facility,” said Duggan.
The city didn’t have the budget for such a high-end playground, but the federal government’s COVID Relief Program stepped in, and area residents in an east-side neighborhood are ecstatic to see it’s coming.
Dennis Phillips is with the Reach Youth program.
“This great facility adds to what we need because we don’t know who, whether another Iceman coming out of this facility like George Gervin,” said Phillips. “We don’t know but sports saves people’s lives.”
They’ve already started construction for the Chandler Park Conservancy Board, which has been fighting for years to host such a facility.
Alex Allen believes the facility says much about the community and what it can mean to the area’s children.
“It says that this community is important, it says this community is worth making an investment in, and we still have a lot of good housing stock in this community,” said Allen. “It means it’s a good place to live.”
The benefit of the Chandler Park Fieldhouse is that it makes outdoor sports possible in these temperatures and conditions.
