For the first time in decades, fans of the Detroit Lions — and the media that covers them — are expecting the team in Honolulu blue and silver to have success on the gridiron.
A fanbase that coined the term “Same Old Lions,” or SOL, to describe a squad that historically found new ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory now looks forward to cheering for a team that is expected, by national and local pundits alike, to win its division, the National Football League’s NFC North, and host a playoff game at Ford Field.
Whether the Lions will play up to those lofty expectations is one question that will be answered this season. Another is whether success on the field will have an impact on the value of the team, which has jumped to more than $3 billion, according to Forbes, from $4.5 million in 1963, when the late William Clay Ford bought the franchise outright.
The Lions will be celebrating their 90th year in the Motor City this season. The “party” will include a special logo, historic artifacts displayed around the concourses at Ford Field, and the unveiling of a statue of Barry Sanders, one of the franchise’s greatest players.
“It’s truly amazing that we’re celebrating 90 seasons of Lions football,” says Sheila Hamp, principal owner and chair of the Detroit Lions, and a daughter of William Clay Ford. “My family is proud to have been associated with the organization for 60 of those years, and (we) cherish the relationship the team has with the NFL, the city of Detroit, and our amazing Lions fans around the world.”
The last nine decades have been a roller coaster ride for fans, with very few highs during the six decades the Ford family has been at the helm. Many fans have called for the family to sell the team.
“William Clay Ford wanted to win in the worst way,” says Jim Brandstatter, who covered the Lions from 1972 until 2017, first as a television sports reporter and then as a radio color commentator for more than three decades. “He did everything possible that he could do to give those players the best chance and the best opportunity to win.
“The Silverdome was a state-of-the-art facility when it was built. Ford Field, same thing. He outbid the rest of the NFL to get quarterback Scott Mitchell when he was thought to be the best quarterback available in 1994. If there was a criticism of William Clay Ford, maybe it would be that he was too loyal (to unsuccessful general managers Russ Thomas and Matt Millen). In many ways that’s not considered a bad thing, except in sports.”
Ford’s purchase of the team followed the team’s finest decade — the 1950s — in which it won four divisional titles and league championships in 1952, 1953, and 1957. Since the 1957 title, the franchise has won one playoff game — during the 1991 season — and holds the league’s longest postseason-win drought.
The lowest of the low was the 2008 season, when the Lions finished 0-16 and became the only NFL team to go winless for an entire season.
“They never had that one quarterback,” Brandstatter says of the team’s lack of success. “Joe Montana, Tom Brady, and Patrick Mahomes never came through Detroit. (Matthew) Stafford should have been the guy, but they didn’t help him with the defense. He did it (won the 2022 Super Bowl) with the Rams.”
The Lions’ resurgence can be traced to the handoff of team management to Hamp when her mother, Martha Firestone Ford, decided to step away from the role in June 2020. Martha Ford took the reins of the team when her husband died in 2014.
At the end of the 2020 season, Hamp — with the assistance of team President and CEO Rod Wood, COO Mike Disner, and Special Assistant CEO Chris Spielman, a former Lions linebacker — laid out a vision for the organization. The goal, according to the team, was establishing the Lions’ facilities as workplaces built on a collaborative culture.
That led to the hiring of Brad Holmes as the team’s executive vice president and general manager. Holmes came to the Lions after spending the previous 18 seasons with the Los Angeles Rams, the last eight of which he spent as director of college scouting.
A week later, Holmes hired former Lions player Dan Campbell as head coach. Campbell promised to change the culture of losing and provide for more individual player training and, by extension, accountability. Having been a member of the 2008 team, he was familiar with the Same Old Lions refrain.
The team also hired a slate of assistant coaches, highlighted by offensive coordinator Ben Johnson and defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn, whom other teams in the league are keeping their eyes on for future head coaching vacancies. Following last season, in fact, Johnson declined several offers to fill head coaching vacancies.
At the same time, the Lions’ front office revamped the overall leadership team, and has since established long-term goals that focus on football and organizational excellence, fan engagement, brand reputation, and stadium experience.
On the latter front, this season fans can look forward to the unveiling of the Barry Sanders statue, improved wireless connectivity inside Ford Field provided by Galtronics of Tempe, Ariz., a new Field Turf playing surface that’s designed to reduce player injuries, and Coca-Cola as the team’s new official soft drink.
Betting on the Lions
In recent years, the joke in betting circles was never put money on the Lions to win because they rarely do. On the other hand, a wager on their opponent often ended with a Lions victory. And forget about betting on the local team winning the Super Bowl.
These days, as stock in the Lions is rising based on last year’s turnaround from a 1-6 start to a 9-8 final record, people are actively betting on the Detroit squad to win the NFC North, and get to and win the first Super Bowl in franchise history.
“For the first time in what feels like decades, things are looking up for the Detroit Lions,” writes Kyle Johansen on TheLines.com. “Despite narrowly missing out on their fourth playoff appearance since 1999, Detroit is building a young core that should challenge for the NFC North crown over the next five years. The Lions’ odds to win the Super Bowl opened at +3500 and that number has fallen to as low as +1800.”
Odds numbers fall as people bet on a team.
Draft Kings has the Lions’ Super Bowl odds at +2200, which is ninth best in the NFL, according to LegalSportsReport.com. Meanwhile, the favored Kansas City Chiefs, Detroit’s first opponent this season on Sept. 7, check in at +600.
As a “reward” for the 3-13-1 2021 season, the league put the Lions on last year’s edition of HBO’s “Hard Knocks,” a program that shows how a team tries to bounce back from a difficult season. Rather than capturing a squad in disarray, the program revealed the culture change, with Campbell at the helm, against the backdrop of the team’s Allen Park headquarters. The show made more than a few believers in the Detroit Lions.
“Hard Knocks” also introduced the football world to 2022 NFL Draft picks Aidan Hutchinson from the University of Michigan and Malcolm “Rodrigo” Rodriguez from Oklahoma State University, both of whom became standout defenders last season.
They joined 2021 Holmes/Campbell draft picks Penei Sewell, an offensive lineman from the University of Oregon, and Amon-Ra St. Brown, a wide receiver from the University of Southern California. Both have proven to be elite performers on the field.
“I always felt that in some ways (the Lions’) scouting organization, at the grass roots level, may not have been as strong as other teams (in the past),” Brandstatter says. “You’ve got to find gems with the third-, fourth-, and fifth-round picks that can play and contribute to your team. The Lions just never did that. Matt Millen is a wonderful guy and a great broadcaster but his evaluation of talent, when you look at the evidence, wasn’t good.”
The results of the first two Holmes/Campbell drafts, plus key free agent signings on both sides of the line of scrimmage, show the team seems to have resolved that issue.
“The operative word is seems,” Brandstatter says. “I think that they have, and I hope that they continue to do well. But they’ve got to do it for 17 weeks starting in September. They’ve got to maintain that hunger, determination, and focus week after week.”
Other 2022 draft picks that played significant snaps last year included defensive ends Josh Paschal from the University of Kentucky and James Houston from Jackson State University. University of Alabama star wide receiver Jameson Williams has yet to make an impact, but is expected to do so this season after he serves a six-game suspension for gambling.
Holmes and Campbell followed up their 2022 draft performance with a highly rated draft class in 2023, including University of Alabama running back Jahmyr Gibbs and safety Brian Branch, University of Iowa linebacker Jack Campbell and tight end Sam LaPorta, and University of Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker.
NFL Next Gen Stats, which takes into account pure data in its grading system, gave the Lions’ draft selections an overall score of 81, to lead the league. The Tennessee Titans came in second with an overall score of 80. The New York Giants were third with 79.
Other draft grades included:
• The Sporting News — A
• DraftKings Nation — A-
• Bleacher Report — A-
• Pro Football Focus — B+
• Fox Sports — B+
• ESPN — B
• Washington Post — B-
• NFL.com — C+
• Sports Illustrated — C+
Some of the 2022 “Hard Knocks” hype got deflated when the Lions started last season with a 1-6 record. Soon after, Hamp — sensing a shot of confidence was in order — visited the team’s practice facility to reassure the players and their fan base that the squad was on the right track. The players responded by finishing the season 8-2, beating the Green Bay Packers in Lambeau Field on the last day of the season, and just missing the playoffs.
The Lions’ win also prevented the Packers from making the postseason.
“Mrs. Hamp did a great job in calming the savage beast by reassuring the team that they needed to just keep doing their jobs and make the coach happy because she’s happy with him,” Brandstatter says. ”As a franchise and as a player, you want security and continuity. You don’t want to think the coach is in trouble because the radio, TV, and newspaper people start doing what they do.”
The Lions’ 8-2 finish following Hamp’s pep talk got the attention of the schedulers at the NFL who decide what teams get to shine under the brightest prime time lights.
The league, which fans have accused of conspiring against the hometown team in the past, has put the Lions on prime-time national television five times this season, including the opening night Thursday game against the defending Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs on Sept. 7 and the Thanksgiving Day contest against the Packers on Nov. 23.
The Lions’ other prime time games include another “Thursday Night Football” appearance on Sept. 28 at Green Bay, “Monday Night Football” at home against the Las Vegas Raiders on Oct. 30, and a Saturday night game in Dallas on Dec. 30.
Mike North, the NFL’s vice president of broadcast planning, says that when the schedules were released in May, the Lions “earned” the spotlight after winning eight of their final 10 games last season, marking the team’s first winning season (9-8) since 2017.
“The last time we all saw them, they were going into Lambeau (Field) and ruining the Packers’ season,” North says. “We always talk about you play your way into prime time, you play your way into the bigger television windows, and the Lions have done that.
“Maybe it started a little bit in August with ‘Hard Knocks,’ and everybody getting to know Coach Campbell and learning what a ‘kneecap-biter’ might be someday, but they earned it with their play on the field.”
At his introductory press conference, Campbell raised some eyebrows with a comment about wanting his players to be kneecap-biters, willing to scratch and claw their way to victory. Now the head coach is cautioning fans that the hype surrounding the Lions might be a bit much.
“I think it’s always the thing that’s going to worry you, is the hype train,” Campbell said at the start of training camp in July. “I mean, this thing has just taken off, and it’s out of control right now.”
If the team does continue its upward trajectory, there’s sure to be more interest. As it is, in late July people waited for hours in the rain to attend the first public day of training camp at the Lions’ training facility in Allen Park, which doesn’t have much parking nor capacity for spectators. This is causing the team to consider moving the operation to another location.
Detroit on Draft
If the resurgent Lions don’t get the eyes of the NFL to focus on Detroit with their play this season, the NFL Draft, which will take place in the Motor City April 25-27, certainly will.
More than 300,000 football fans converged on Kansas City for this year’s NFL Draft, and local officials are expecting the same kind of crowd around Campus Martius Park and Hart Plaza, which will serve as the event sites for the Detroit edition of the Draft. The three-day event extravaganza has become one of the most anticipated sports events of the year.
“Detroiter have shown, many times, our ability to put on highly successful national events and we’ll be ready again to welcome the world next April,” says Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan. “Next year’s NFL Draft is going to be an incredible opportunity for hundreds of thousands of visitors to see the progress our city is making.”
The festival will include an interactive football theme park where fans can partake in pick-up games, exhibits, musical performances, and autograph sessions, and have an opportunity to take photographs of the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
“The Draft has become a prominent offseason event across the country, and we’re excited to work with the Lions and their partners to bring the 2024 NFL Draft to the Motor City, says Roger Goodell, commissioner of the NFL. “With the help of Visit Detroit, the Detroit Sports Commission, and the City of Detroit, the Lions’ passionate fan base and all visitors will be treated to an incredible three-day experience.”
Good predicts that the Detroit area could seen an economic windfall of around $200 million from hosting the Draft. In April, Kansas City estimated that the event brought in approximately $125 million to its economy.
Nashville, though, is the city to beat. Draft attendance and the resulting economic impact set record in 2019, when 600,000 football fans traveled to the Music City and spent $224 million.
“We’re considering whether we’re going to continue to stay there and put more money into the facility, or (if we’d) be better off looking at locations elsewhere in metro Detroit, where we’d have more space for the team and training camp for the fans,” team president Rod Wood told reporters in March. “Right now, in the short run, we’re going to stay where we are, do the best we can to get as many fans in there, and have the experience as good as it can be.”
The team invested $34 million more than 20 years ago to build the Allen Park complex, which features an indoor practice field, two full-length outdoor practice fields, staff offices, a broadcast studio, film rooms, a weight room, locker rooms, and rehab facilities.
“I’d like to have 15,000 fans there,” Wood says.
One site reportedly being considered is a 14-acre parcel along Gratiot Avenue, just west of I-375, now owned by Dan Gilbert’s Rock Ventures. The vacant parcel, which offers plenty of nearby parking, was once the proposed site of a new Wayne County Jail.
Regardless of how successful the Detroit Lions are on the football field in 2023 or where the team’s headquarters ends up being located, its value will continue to increase, making William Clay Ford’s 1963 investment of $4.5 million one of the greatest investments in the history of sports.
“It’s almost impossible to lose money with an NFL franchise,” says Michael Leeds, a professor of economics at Temple University in Philadelphia who specializes in sports economics. “It just keeps going up, and up, and up.”
As of Aug. 22, 2022, the Lions’ value, according to Forbes, was $3.05 billion, which is 31st out of 32 teams. Because the NFL shares so much of its revenue with all of its franchises, the value is based on operating income, of which the Lions had $88.6 million in 2021.
Only the Buffalo Bills had less operating revenue ($83.4 million) than the Lions. That compares to the league’s most valuable franchise, the Dallas Cowboys, which is worth $8 billion with $465.9 million in operating income.
Detroit Lions Timeline
June 30, 1934 George A. Richards heads group that purchases the Portsmouth (Ohio) Spartans for $7,952.08 and moves the team to Detroit.
Sept. 23, 1934 Lions play their first NFL game, beat New York Giants 9-0 at University of Detroit Stadium before 12,000.
Nov. 29, 1934 Lions play the first of their traditional Thanksgiving Day home games, losing to the Bears, 19-16, before 26,000 fans.
Dec. 15, 1935 Lions defeat the New York Giants, 26-7, for their first championship.
Sept. 9, 1938 Detroit defeats Pittsburgh, 16-7, in the first game played at the Lions’ new home, Briggs (later renamed Tiger) Stadium.
Dec. 28, 1952 Lions win their first championship since 1935 with a 17-7 victory over the Browns in Cleveland before 50,934.
Dec. 27, 1953 Detroit wins its second straight championship with a 17-16 decision over Cleveland in Detroit before 54,577.
Dec. 29, 1957 Detroit claims its fourth championship on a 59-14 victory over Cleveland before 55,263 in Detroit.
Jan. 10, 1964 William Clay Ford takes over as the Lions’ sole owner after purchasing the franchise for $4.5 million. The deal was agreed to on Nov. 22, 1963.
Aug. 23, 1975 Lions play the first game in their new home, the Pontiac Metropolitan Stadium (later renamed the Pontiac Silverdome).
Dec. 31, 1983 After claiming the club’s first NFC Central title, a last-second field goal attempt fails and Detroit drops a 24-23 playoff game at San Francisco.
Dec. 22, 1991 Lions finish regular season with 12 wins (the most in franchise history) and claim the NFC Central Championship, Detroit’s first division title since 1983.
Jan. 5, 1992 Lions host their first playoff game in the Silverdome — the first home playoff game since 1957. Detroit defeats Dallas, 38-6.
Jan. 12, 1992 Lions make their first appearance in NFC Championship Game, losing to the Redskins, 41-10, in Washington.
Jan. 9, 2001 Matt Millen is hired as president and CEO, and assumes control of team operations. Chuck Schmidt resigns as executive vice president and chief operating officer.
Sept. 22, 2002 In the inaugural game at Ford Field the Lions fall to the Green Bay Packers, 37-31.
Sept. 24, 2008 Matt Millen is dismissed as president and CEO.
January 2008 Lions finish the season with a 0-16 record.
March 9, 2014 Lions Owner and Chairman William Clay Ford passes away at age 88. Martha Firestone Ford succeeds her husband as owner and chairman of the board.
June 23, 2020 Sheila Ford Hamp succeeds Martha Firestone Ford as principal owner and chairman.
Jan. 14, 2021 Lions hire Brad Holmes as their executive vice president and general manager.
Jan. 21, 2021 Lions hire Dan Campbell as head coach.
January 2022 Lions finish 2021 season 3-13-1.
January 2023 Lions finish 2022 season 9-8.
“Football is somewhat unique because it shares so much of its revenue,” Leeds says. “Luxury boxes are the big differentiator. The (Cowboys’) stadium in Arlington has far more luxury boxes than any other stadium in the league. That’s one of the areas where teams get to keep the lion’s share of the revenue.
“The market is a relatively minor factor. Being in a large market doesn’t carry the premium that it does in other sports. It hasn’t been a factor for close to a century.”
Leeds says that even when ticket sales were the bulk of the revenue, the NFL teams were sharing, which was born out of weakness because so many franchises were in such terrible shape.
“They realized if these teams went under, then we don’t have anybody to play,” Leeds says. “(The NFL) was the first to share ticket revenue. They were the first to establish a reverse-order draft. All of this was designed to keep the franchises afloat.
“Someone once said that the last bastion of communism in America is the National Football League,” Leeds adds with a chuckle, noting television revenue is what makes even the Lions and the Bills so valuable.
NFL Team Values
(as of Aug. 22, 2022)
1. Dallas Cowboys $8B
2. New England Patriots $4.6B
3. Los Angeles Rams $6.2B
4. Washington Commanders $6.1B*
5. New York Giants $6B
6. Chicago Bears $5.8B
7. New York Jets $5.4B
8. San Francisco 49ers $5.2B
9. Las Vegas Raiders $5.1B
10. Philadelphia Eagles $4.9
31. Detroit Lions $3.05B
32. Cincinnati Bengals $3B
* The Commanders were sold for $6.1 billion in April 2023
In 2021, the NFL signed long-term agreements (2023-2033) with media partners Amazon, CBS, ESPN/ABC, FOX, and NBC for the distribution of NFL games that will bring the league and its teams $113 billion over the course of the contract. It’s by far the richest such package in American sports.
But for the Lions, will improved performance on the field result in any increase in overall team value?
“To the degree that they might be able to jack up the prices of their luxury boxes, doing better on the field might have an effect on the team’s value,” Leeds says. “It will nudge their value up a little bit, but it’s not going to turn them into the Dallas Cowboys.”
