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Detroit Wayne County Stadium Authority Board of Directors

Detroit Documenters20min

Unknown Speaker

00:02

Calling the meeting to order. Roll call, please.

Speaker 1

00:09

Brian masala here, Charlie Williams here. Good stuff undress them here, as they have MacKinnon. Stephanie Washington. Luke Paulson here.

Speaker 2

00:22

approval of the agenda. There a motion? Move approval. Any discussion? of direct? Any oppose? Approval of the May 4 2023. Meeting Minutes, pages three to 26. There's a motion on the floor. Moving forward. I'll second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any old business? Any new business?

Speaker 1

01:03

Underneath new business, there are a few items. First item we would like to introduce and welcome to our Detroit Wayne County Stadium authority. Some new board members. We have with us today Stephanie Washington and Luke Polson. Welcome to the team. I would like to give you all an opportunity to just maybe just introduce yourselves a little bit to the board. And give you guys the proper welcome you deserve.

Speaker 3

01:27

Hi, everyone. I'm Stephanie Grimes, Washington. I am the mayor's Chief of Staff. Let's see. Been in Lansing this week. It's been a crazy week. What do you want to know about me? I enjoy the city I love all the things that we're doing in the city, in its board to like this that keep moving the city forward, which is fabulous. We all just experienced the NFL Draft. And it was tremendous. And it was really just kind of a a fantastic event that just kind of brought the region together. And so, you know, played a major part in that and just, you know, enjoying our time lifted up our city. So thank you. So

Speaker 2

02:14

I got a question for you. How excited are you to join this board?

Speaker 3

02:18

I am very excited to join this board. I can't hear you

Speaker 2

02:22

said how excited she wants to join the board.

Speaker 3

02:25

Yeah, I am very excited and hope I can make a difference and be an asset to the board. So yes, thank you. Welcome.

Speaker 4

02:32

And thank you very much. Thank you. Look, I appreciate the opportunity to say a few words. Thank you so much for the warm welcome. I'm Luke post. I'm a senior executive of Mayor's Office part of the economic development team there. So my role means working closely with other public authorities to drive good development outcomes, especially downtown. I am a public authority nerd. So I secretly love the stadium authority. Being on the board now is is really a dream come true. And I have a great admirer of this institution and the assets that it it oversees and what they contribute to the city. So very excited to work with you on important work in this organization.

Unknown Speaker

03:10

Thank you Luke. Welcome. Mary's on the phone. She's on zoom in the phone. Brian's presentation

Speaker 2

03:17

is ticket. All right, in honor of Mary Martin. From the county of Wayne, Mary, thank you for your contribution in the resolution here for the count from the county of Wayne resolution honoring Mary Martin contributions and commitment to the VW CSA. Whereas Mary Martin began her professional career as a project manager for the construction and development of Comerica Park and Ford Field in 1998. And Mary Martin, whereas Mary Martin continued her commitment to public service by serving as a board member of the Detroit Wayne County Stadium authority for several years. And whereas Mary Martin has displayed great vision, patience, and the highest standards of leadership during her tenure as a board member on the DW CSA and whereas Mary Martin not only fostered public and private collaboration, and the construction and development of the stadium project, she also provided valuable and unforgettable insight into ensuring the public that the public is well represented and her serve as a board member, and the DW SCA, and Mary Martin, has continued her dedication to public service by relocating, accepting a position as the Chief Operating Officer of Duke University Hospital System in Durham, North Carolina. Congratulations, while Mary Martin's elevation to become a prestigious leader on a national level for health care has resulted in her resignation from the DW CSA it, therefore, be it that the board of the DW CSA and the Wayne County staff members assigned to the DW CSA and the Wayne County Executive expressed their sincere free appreciation to Mary Martin for her tireless contributions to the DW CSA board and stadia project and be it further resolved that the Board of dW s DW CSA recognizes Mary Martin for her outstanding public service to the DW CSA and hear my direct that she received this official proclamation from the DW CSA board thanking her for her countless contributions Mary Martin Thank you thank the Tigers Yep, good to go. Yep. Good. Are we gonna do are we doing the new business? By

Speaker 5

06:07

Tiger? Oh for America. Yeah. Yeah, the Tigers just wanted to say thank you to Mary's Can you introduce yourself? sorry Tim Padgett senior vice president. At ad je T T. Senior Vice President venue operations for elite sports entertainment. And the Tigers just wanted to drop a small thank you for Mary for her time on the board and for all the things she did for Comerica Park over the years so we appreciate your appreciation Mary. Mary, can you say anything? Are you?

Unknown Speaker

06:47

muted?

Speaker 6

06:58

Oh, Lions Do you swear Lions go lions. Todd Argus Senior VP facilities, Detroit Lions and fourth field. The half of the lions. We have a gift bag we'd like to present to Mary Martin for her years of service. Thank you very much. We will

Speaker 2

07:23

we will get that out to her. Thank you. Yeah, thanks, AMC. They're recommending approval for request by the city of Detroit. Department of Public Works requests for encroachment closure during Ford Field major events, pages 27 through 56.

Speaker 1

07:52

For the site, I'm gonna pass it over to our our Corp counsel, Jim Jernigan, James Jernigan to speak on this.

Speaker 7

07:58

Yeah. Good morning, everybody. Jim Jernigan, Wayne County Corporation Council, this is a a matter that was brought to our attention from the lions. A few weeks ago, the city of Detroit had has asked that the lions submit an encroachment, a request for an encroachment permit for some fencing and temporary security structures that are in place during major events, including football games and concerts and everything else that happens at Ford Field. This is a fairly common request of local municipalities. I don't have a problem with it. I've reviewed it. I've gone over with the lines and I would recommend approval.

Speaker 2

08:40

zillion motion on the floor. Motion to approve. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Any opposition? Right. Offering presentations I believe the Detroit Lions are next.

Speaker 6

09:02

I'll stand up so you can hear me. All right. Todd Argus Senior VP facilities, Detroit Lions and Ford Field. Just gonna give a brief update. Happy to answer any questions afterwards. Last year 2023 was a record year for Ford Field. We hosted multiple sold out back to back events, five major concerts plus WWE SummerSlam as well as the USFL season. We also hosted the first two home playoff games and for field history. And it was a record year for us last year. So the stadium is holding up well. And we appreciate the fact that we're able to host these major events. Some of our major capital improvements that were either underway or we've completed recently, our we've expanded and updated our video or control room. We replaced our turf in 2023. This is year two with a five Have your phased project to replace the Cal wall window systems. So that's the east and west side of the stadium. When you look up to the top, you can see these Windows systems, they're starting to show signs of wear. So we're replacing them over the next we're in year two of a five year Phase project to do that. We are currently renovating the main kitchen at Ford Field. And we're also completing facade repairs and waterproofing to the exterior. This past year, Ford Field was rated the number one NFL stadium and overall game day satisfaction. This was done by a survey that's done of all NFL stadiums by the league called Voice of fan. So we're happy that we received that designation. And the team and the stadium look forward to hosting additional all city events. Similar to the draft, we help support the draft. And we'll also be hosting the 2027 Final Four, ad forcefield. You know, it's a 22 year old stadium, the things that we're dealing with right now is, you know, broadcast compounds continue to get bigger as we host playoff games and some of these major items, we are space constrained. And we are curious as to the impact of the I 375 project and how that's going to affect us. But we're engaged in those talks and doing this long term plan. If any board member is interested in coming and having a tour of the facility to see how we're keeping up with it, my door is always open and you can reach out to me. And I'm happy to take any questions you have.

Speaker 3

11:41

Maybe Chair, can I just have a quick question. So I just have a just a quick question. So in the scheme of things with the constraints that the facility has, like, how do you how do we compare? And like what are with these constraints? What does it you know, prevent us from doing like, just how do we compare a get, I guess, with the stadiums around the country.

Speaker 6

12:08

So new stadiums that are being built are taking into account you know, and when the stadium was constructed, we only planned for three or four broadcast trucks that would have to come and film these games. Now when you have Amazon Thursday night games or Monday Night Football, you have double the size of these TV compounds and they're only getting bigger. They're providing a lot more angles and technology to the broadcast. So you need space for all those things that just know about Ford Field. We're very landlocked, we don't have room to expand. So that's the issue right now.

Unknown Speaker

12:48

All right. The Detroit Tigers update.

Unknown Speaker

12:54

I'm sorry. I don't know where to go.

Speaker 8

13:01

Good morning. My name is Chris Lawrence. I'm the Vice President of park operations at Comerica Park. Nice to see some familiar faces and some new ones. Just also piggybacking off what Todd said. Just to give a quick quick update from last summer. Obviously we had hosted our 81 baseball games throughout the year. Additionally, we had a concert, one concert last year pink during the summer, and we hosted an international soccer match with white fans from from all over the world, truthfully, to downtown Detroit, American Park, which was the first time in probably over 10 years that we have a soccer match. And that was whose goal was great. And there's talks of others in the future hopefully that we can secure as we go into this year we have at home games theater. Again, here young minds got it sorry. Moving forward and moving forward into this year. We have at home games on the schedule, we're just about 25% of the way through that calendar year already. Heading into this offseason, or this season, we completed three or four fairly large investment capital projects that were geared towards fan improvements. So I'll touch base on some of them. Prior to last year, however, we installed a brand new LED lights system into the seating bowl proper. The original lighting of the lighting system that predated it was original to the stadium. So this was a significant upgrade to LED lighting actually use the same vendor that Ford Field did for their project, got over, met with Todd and their team and really kind of saw the capabilities that have had so if you've been to a game or seen it on TV, you'd likely would have noticed the difference in the broadcast capabilities, but also some of the in game entertainment that it offers. Make flashing lights if a pitcher comes in if there's a homerun and there are different color schemes that can be added. And just the overall consistency of light that protrudes out into the field is an elevated experience for our fans and also for fans or for players but fan safety as well too. Going into this year, there was another push for some fan improvement opportunities. The obvious and largest one that you may have seen or read about was the upgrade to our video board our main video board in left field. So that was expanded to over 18,000 square feet of surface. That puts us number two in Major League Baseball in terms of overall size, enhance technology, increased clarity and just overall experience that it's provided the fans you can't miss it. When you come walking through right now it really hit you in the face and it's been a great addition so far. In addition to that, we started a two year sound upgrade, which was greatly needed at the ballpark. So we focused on the main lower bowl this offseason, as well as the outfield areas and our two suite levels. It was a completely re engineered system that mitigated some of the complaints and issues that we had from fans prior but also increased coverage, you can hear better and you can feel the sound added amplifiers and subwoofers have created a an enhanced experience for our fans but also players as well to to grab an extra set of energy. And then lastly, around the concourse area where we kind of redistributed or reinstalled how we distribute cable and television throughout the concourse and some of our interior spaces through it's called an IPTV system to internet provided television. So we had previously we had coax cables, which screwed into TVs that we had over three or 400 around the Main Concourse in the park. So that's been enhanced and upgraded to an IPTV system. Over 400 new TVs were installed around the ballpark. It's been a major win for fans but also for operations as well to the overall aesthetics and environment that it creates. It allows us to do more fan enhancements push messages, in the event of emergencies, we have the ability to push things out. So it's been a really big addition for us and I think made a big difference, especially as you're going through the games around the concourse as well too. So also happy to answer any questions that you might have. I apologize if I was going too fast. Great. All right. Thank you

Unknown Speaker

17:20

Ryan, can I jump in real quick? If I may, um, I got a text from Mary Martin.

Speaker 7

17:27

And she she said quote I was trying to talk but was muted. Please express my gratitude to the county city, lions and tigers for this proclamation. I am deeply moved. I started as project manager of the stadiums at 22 years old. I looked so young that one of the architects thought it was bring your child to work day to see both stadiums come to fruition with heavy involvement from Wayne County, Detroit, women and minority minority owned businesses was a career highlight for sure. Mike Duggan and Beth Duncombe co chaired the board then and to then later be appointed by Mike to serve on the board was truly an honor. While I have relocated Detroit will always be my home and I strive to continue to serve the public now here in Durham on various boards and making sure the people of the triangle have a healthcare institution they can rely on and be proud of. Again, I am humbled by the recognition and honor thank you and Brian Go Green class of 98 married

Unknown Speaker

18:34

I knew I was older

Speaker 2

18:42

All right, is there a motion to adjourn the meeting Let the record state and my dad's in the hospital I apologize. So that's why I'm a little I'm a little behind the map dang rhythm cadence and we're touching goal anyway I'm sorry public comment.

Unknown Speaker

19:06

Public comment is limited to two minutes

Unknown Speaker

19:16

themselves

Unknown Speaker

19:32

anybody has comments that can you're trying to speak put in the chat or shouldn't be able to unmute yourself

Speaker 1

19:51

you're not getting emails. Ryan, do you want Brian you want to make maybe a second and third call from full time before we move on? Any?

Speaker 2

19:58

Any more public comment? And last call for public comments because I gotta get going. Let the record state is there a motion to adjourn the meeting motion to adjourn All in favor

Unknown Speaker

20:17

guys

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