PONTIAC, Mich. – At a press conference held Tuesday morning with Pontiac Mayor Waterman, it was announced that Wisner Stadium has been renovated and revitalized with the help of Lee Contracting and will now be the home to soccer and football starting in Spring 2015.
The soccer teams will be the men's National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) Michigan Stars FC and Michigan's only semi pro women's soccer team, the Motor City FC. Football will share the stadium with home team the Rivals Professional Football team as well as the Pontiac Generals and the Oakland County Racers.
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Mayor Waterman is "very excited about this venture coming to Pontiac with these soccer and football teams. This represents a community investment as well as it helps to revitalize the community and is a clear statement that Pontiac is a great place for recreational and sports activities." She goes on to explain that "Pontiac has a rich history of sports involvement and a very loyal base of fans who support activities. We have location location location with being right in the middle of southeast Michigan. Our past history is hosting the 1994 World Cup where ‘the world came to play', the Superbowl (XVI) in 1982 as well as amateur teams like the Michigan Panthers and the Detroit Express."
Michigan State Representative Tim Grenwel of the 29th House District was also in attendance for this event and felt "this is a very exciting opportunity to the City of Pontiac and all of Oakland County. Having high level soccer leagues right here will help attract visitors to the City and those visitors will in turn help support local businesses. In addition, these teams have committed to supporting youth recreation in the community which is very important for the future of our young people."
"It is important to note", continued Representative Grenwel, "this is just the latest in a string of investments under the leadership of Mayor Waterman that reflects the improved business optimism and willingness to invest here in the great City of Pontiac." He goes on to thank the Mayor "for your leadership as this is yet another example of the economic turnaround here in the city and I know it's just the beginning of more great things to come."
Michigan Stars FC
The Michigan Stars FC, formerly known as the FC Sparta, are in their second season as the Stars and played the 2014 season in Dearborn. Their CEO Ned Fawaz, President Shereef Akeel and Facilities Director Tony Hermiz were in attendance at the conference.
Akeel said they are looking forward to the "shared vision in home entertainment in Pontiac with bringing soccer and football to Wisner Stadium" along with the sharing this vision with the City of Pontiac and football but also in thanks to Wisner Stadium owner Steve Cartier. The CEO of the Stars hopes to "utilize Wisner Stadium making it a centerpiece of the community. We plan to offer free soccer clinics for neighborhood kids allowing them the opportunity to realize their dream of playing professional soccer someday. A future World Cup star could come from this neighborhood."
Owner/CEO Fawaz explains about the teams that "The Michigan Stars and Motor City are top-tier amateur soccer teams, including college athletes, both local and from all over the Midwest, who are aspiring to play professional soccer on a national and international level. The Michigan Stars organization provides the path to reach their goals and dreams, providing them the opportunity to compete against the best players in the U.S. and catch the attention of pro scouts."
The league that the Stars compete in is the NPSL which is a tier 4 team of the U.S. soccer pyramid and has over 80 teams across the country. It is the largest national soccer league in the U.S. and Michigan has three teams in the NPSL with the Stars being one and the other two are Detroit City FC and Lansing United. They compete within the Great Lakes Midwest Division in which Lansing United won as regular season champs in 2014 and Detroit City FC had the most regular season wins in 2013. The Michigan Stars FC recorded for the 2014 season was 4-1-9 and finished 4th in the conference behind first place Lansing United and second place Detroit City FC.
Michigan Stars FC owner concluded "the Michigan Stars are more than just a soccer team. They Stars are committed to enhancing the lives of youth and adults within the community."
"For over a year we have been searching for a venue to call our home," discusses President Akeel and continues that "We believe we have found it here at Wisner Stadium." Akeel describes as a child "when the Detroit Express used to play at the Pontiac Silverdome, I used to go with my father and brother to watch the games. Those were very personal and enjoyable moments. That is one of my motivations and my driving force for our teams is to bring back those fun loved moments as a family back to Pontiac."
The facilities director Tony Hermiz, is also the Head Coach at Rochester College men's soccer team as well as owner of the Winstar Sports Facility that is on the Silverdome property. President Akeel states about Hermiz that "he has been an advocate for youth soccer and its with his expertise that it's going to help us to reach out to the community and the youth and to help with camps. With Tony coaching at Rochester, it brings us this credibility of being able to have a pipeline as well for the kids that want to aspire to go to college."
Hermiz "grew up playing the game and got to play in college while he received his education. At Winstar, we work with a lot of youth and we see that the City of Pontiac is in need for this opportunity and that is why I agreed to contribute, not only with our facility but also with the City." He hopes that "through our programs we can get these kids the opportunity to not only possibly play for my school but for any college out there. I am very excited and appreciate the opportunity and am hoping that the sky is the limit with what we have with the City but also with the people sitting here with us that will also be involved."
The Michigan Stars website lists their Head Coach as Mark Christensen and Assistant Coach as Richard Christensen and President Akeel hopes to keep the costs down to a level that a 4 to 5 person family can come out without feeling as though they are spending a lot, and explained that last year's prices were a season ticket was $42 for their 8 home games.
Motor City FC
"The Stars will be joined by their sister team, the Motor City soccer club, the only top-tier women's team in the state of Michigan" as explained by CEO Fawaz.
Head Coach of the Motor City is Skipper Mukhtar, he feels that "We have the best women in the State on our team as we have 5 past Miss Soccers, 4 girls from ACC and over 15 Big Ten current and past players. Of those, 5 have cap with the National team at some level with U23 or U20 and 3 of the girls played pro." Mukhtar continues, "The number one goal for most of these girls is the show and to make sure people get entertained with they come to the game. We are going to be a fun show to watch!"
They also have "the best staff around" as Mukhtar explains with Assistant Coach and Next Level Training Owner Aaron Byrd, Assistant Coach and AFC Ann Arbor men's Head Coach Dave Herbestreit, Assistant Coach and AFC Ann Arbor's Assistant Coach Nate Stovall along with Nationals goalie coach Jeff Shuk and Aaron Roy as well as Steve Courtier.
Michigan Stars FC and Motor City FC's regular season will run from May to July and home games will be held at Wisner on Friday nights at 5pm and 8pm and/or Sundays at 1pm and 3pm.
Shereff Akeel, President of Michigan Stars FC feels that this is a "shared vision to help bring life back to Wisner Stadium" along with not only the Michigan Stars FC and Motor City FC soccer teams but also the Rivals Pro Football team and the Pontiac Generals and Oakland County Racers.
Rivals Pro Football (Pontiac Generals and Oakland County Racers)
The Rivals Pro Football team is run by owner Quentin Hines who is a former New England Patriots NFL player and as Shereff Akeel introduced him, "a humbled man of character which was one of the drawing features and aspects as to why we came here to share the field with Mr. Hines."
Hines explains the reason he chose Wisner Stadium and the City of Pontiac as "we experimented with Wisner last year when we held our championship game there and it really was a success and we received a lot of support from the City. We decided to actually bring two teams here to the City of Pontiac within Rivals Pro Football that are the Pontiac Generals and the Oakland County Racers."
"The Rivals Pro Football League is really in the business of growing roots here in Pontiac and we have already starting by hiring Pontiac native Wendell Jefferson as Head Coach of the Pontiac Generals," continued Hines.
Owner Hines went further stating, "The Rivals Pro Football team is extremely family oriented. For the games that we've had and the games we will continue to have in the future, we offer all children 13 and under free admission as well as our players and coach want to invest in the community youth and hold football camps and seminars to education them. We welcome all families to come out to our games."
Wisner Stadium will play host to the football games on Saturdays from May to August for a total of 10 weeks of games that are free to children 13 and under and $10 each game for those older.
Both soccer and football teams explained that they will be meeting with members of the community and as Akeel explains, "All ideas for community involvement are on the table, we are going to be working intensively with Hines and we have a marketing team that we have hired and all ideas to increase the name recognition for Wisner and inform everyone that Wisner is going to be alive this summer are on the agenda." He continues that they want to "engage restaurants and local community to get involved so we are going to be pounding the pavement."
Former Oakland County Commissioner and former Pontiac School Board trustee Mattie McKinney Hatchett wanted to be a part of this exciting process today as well. "I came today to support Mayor Waterman because of the vision that she has for this City and what she's doing. She is not only trying to draw business investments here but she also knows that the quality of life includes your time off, your entertainment."
"I look forward to what you are going to bring," continued Hatchett referring to the teams coming to Wisner and continuing, "You are going to give the school district, the athletic programs and our young people a shot in the arm because we know there are people in our community that take soccer and sports seriously."
"I thank all of you and the Mayor for her continued striving to raise the quality of life that we have here in Pontiac," concluded Ms. Hatchett.
Information on Michigan Stars FC can be found on www.michiganstarsfc.com and www.npsl.info, Motor City FC at www.mc-fc.com and www.wpsl.com as well as information on the Rivals Pro Football League at www.RivalsNation.com.
Stay tuned to ClickOnDetroit.com/Soccer for more coverage surrounding soccer in Michigan -- including college, amateur and professional leagues. For the latest news, follow @Local4Sports and @KellyHaapala on Twitter.