The Detroit Lions won’t be moving from their Allen Park practice facility, but more upgrades are coming in 2025.
A few years back, Detroit Lions team president and CEO Rod Wood told reporters the team was in the very early stages of exploring options to find a new home for their training facility, currently located in Allen Park. But after spending the past two years renovating their current home, Wood said on Tuesday that the team no longer has relocation plans.
“We have no plans to move right now,” Wood told a small group of Detroit reporters. “We’re investing a ton in the building. We’ve looked at alternatives. There really isn’t a great location that is superior to where we are. We’re convenient to downtown, we’re convenient to the airport, we’re near all the highways. People have decided where to live based upon where the facility is, so it’d be very disruptive, I think, to move, and it would have to be something that’s substantially better than what we have.”
Wood admitted that the one downside to staying where they’re at is there is not significant room for a third outdoor field, and they aren’t able to expand much to accommodate more fans during training camp. But with recent investments into their training and weight room—plus a fresh partnership with Meijer and incoming revenue from an extension via Ford Field naming rights—Wood believes their current facility has the accommodations of a brand-new facility, despite it being the Lions’ home since 2002.
“When people walk in, they don’t believe it’s 20-plus years old. It kind of feels new,” Wood said.
This year, the facility is planning on upgrading the players’ locker room—an overdue renovation for the players. In the public NFLPA report cards that were released earlier this year, the Lions received just a C+ when it came to their locker room, grading 18th in the NFL—one of their lowest rankings this year. Per the report, only 75 percent of players felt they had enough room in their individual locker, ranking 21st out of 32 teams.
“You guys will see when you come in, we’re doing a lot of renovation to Allen Park again this year. A brand new locker room for the players, expanding the weight room, all new weight equipment,” Wood said. “Staying contemporary with all those things is helped by that kind of (sponsorship) revenue, as well as increases in revenue elsewhere.”
Lions players will descend upon the upgraded facility later this month, with the start of organized team activities scheduled for late April.
