In 1957, eighteen years before the Detroit Lions played their first game in the new stadium, the idea of a sports stadium for metropolitan Detroit was proposed and sent to the Michigan Legislature to build a sports facility via an Olympic Games Authority. In 1962 and 1964, a Detroit stadium proposal for the State Fair Grounds was discussed for a
1968 Olympic Games bid.
In 1966, the idea of a stadium was also incorporated in a proposal for
downtown redevelopment for the city of Pontiac, MI. However, actual implementation of the idea did not take place until February 1968, when an unofficial committee was formed by Detroit Mayor Jerome Cavanagh to make recommendations on the location and construction of the stadium.
A new expanded and official Metropolitan Stadium Committee, consisting of C. Don Davidson, Detroit Lions owner William Clay Ford, and other locally -prominent businessmen was organized to discuss a stadium on a 155 acre site located at the intersection of two major highways (1-75 and M-59) on land owned by the Pontiac School District. The Metropolitan Stadium Committee voted unanimously for the Pontiac site.
By the following year, the group had become incorporated as the City of Pontiac Stadium Building Authority, with members appointed by the city commission which spent the greater part of 1969 completing the necessary economic feasibility studies in constructing such a stadium. The city informed the Detroit Lions and the Detroit Tigers professional franchises that a stadium could be built and financed in Pontiac..
Sources:
*A Sociological View of an All American City (page 99)
*An Environmental analysis of a central business area (page 64)
*City to Push for Stadium - Pontiac Press Newspaper, May 24, 1968 (see article below)
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| C. Don Davidson |
From the early 60's until the mid 1970's, Pontiac's own,
Don Davidson (1929-1987) was an urban planner, designer and architect, designing and coordinating many developments across the nation. Davidson also taught architecture and urban planning as a professor at the University of Detroit. He was best known for two local projects, the Pontiac Silverdome Stadium and the
Pontiac Plan,
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Pontiac Times, Dec. 7, 1973
During the initial phase of the
stadium proposal of 1966 (
pg. 104), Davidson and his University of Detroit architecture class, under the direction of
Bruno Leon, Dean of Architecture, conceived and designed the stadium as part of an overall urban renewal project for the city of Pontiac and surrounding area. Davidson ultimately was hired as Chief Project Designer by the architectural firm, O'dell, Hewlett & Luckenbach.
After the completion of the stadium project,
Davidson was pleased to know that a major part of his life long dream for the city of Pontiac had become a reality with the construction of an 80,000 seat 'state of the art' sports complex that, in his own words, "has
a symmetrical layout and field of view that mirrors the Roman Colosseum". Davidson, along with Oakland Press Sports Writer, Bruno Kearns, was also a founding member of the Pontiac Quarterback Club.
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| Professor Davidson at urban renewal presentation - ca 1966 |
City to Push for Stadium
(First mention of a Pontiac stadium, Pontiac Press - May 24, 1968)
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Rendering of a proposed dual stadium with a sliding dome
“It’s the smallest big stadium in the world. It has a unique design that will allow more people to sit close to the field, with straight sight lines, than at any other stadium. I think it’s the best stadium in the world right now.” - C. Don Davidson, designer
