Last summer, as part of a day camp, the children went to Ford Field in Detroit. They toured the facility. Here are some of their recollections of what they saw and learned about Ford Field:
The tour guide told us that it was almost impossible to kick a football up to the ceiling. You’d have to double the world record for highest kick to get close to the ceiling.
Ford wanted to have a ceiling that could be opened and closed. He wasn’t allowed to do that so he put in a see-through ceiling instead.
The turf of the field is grass mixed with artificial turf.
He wanted to maintain the historical aspects of the neighborhood so some of the original buildings are built into and around the stadium. He also wanted the stadium to have the effect of being outdoors so that is why there are so many windows in different parts of the stadium. Some of the original roads are inside the stadium.
The elevators have some glass sides and it was neat to see the machinery that makes the elevators move.
The press area level had bamboo flooring. The press area had lots of computers and chairs. There was an area to get food and an area that had cupboards for supplies. Off of the main area, there were rooms for the press people: one set for Lions’ announcers and one set for the visitors’ announcers.
We got to go into the Lions’ locker room and the visitor’s locker room. The Lions’ locker room was spacious and had all of the lockers against the walls with a big open area in the middle. The lockers were organized based on what position the player played; everyone who played the same position had lockers next to each other. The visitor’s lockers room had lockers in the middle so they couldn’t communicate as easily.
We also saw the loading dock area where all of the football gear is brought into the stadium. At the end of the tour we saw an area that overlooked the lobby.