Detroit makes a comeback with new sports hub
Brand new arena anchors 50-block area of eateries, craft brewers and hip hotels in a resurgent Motor City
Chickens have nothing to do with fowling, the Michigan-born football-meets-bowling blend that hangs on wonky skills and wild tosses. It’s pronounced “foal-ling.” I was gently mocked for getting it wrong, all part of the rec room party vibe at the Fowling Warehouse, opened in 2014 in a massive factory that once churned out axles for the Motor City’s auto industry.
Fowling fits in well in sports-fixated Detroit, a once-struggling city enjoying a rapid renaissance. Close enough to Toronto for a weekend getaway, Detroit has always drawn baseball, basketball, hockey and football f ans across the border.
Now you can add fowling to the mix.
The warehouse is in Hamtramck, a gritty, proudly multicultural, small city near Detroit that’s worth a visit to try a sport none of your friends have heard of. Follow fowling with an old-world feast at Polonia, which has been dishing
up Polish classics for decades and even attracted American TV personality/cult chef and author Anthony Bourdain.
The “kooky, cool and neat” sport invented 16 years ago by 48-year-old Chris Hutt while tailgating at the Indianapolis 500 is unpredictable fun where the posted rules include “no knuckleheads.”
“Anybody can play it. It has nothing to do with being a football star,” Hutt says.
Played one-on-one or in teams (the more fun option), it sounds simple: toss a football back and forth, trying to take out your opponent’s bowling pins set up in typical triangle formation about 13 metres away. Maybe have a beer.
Footballs are hard to aim downwards. They bounce on the concrete floor and often take out pins in lanes on either side, netting points for other players. You can sign up for $10 unlimited “open fowling” where “winners play and losers walk,” Hutt says.
People waiting outside the caged playing area take turns as players wipe out. Up to 10 players per side can book a lane for two hours for $120.
A group of us enthusiastically gave fowling a try. The gridiron stars were humbled as we ran around chasing errant footballs. Guys who played college ball muttered about that old shoulder injury, while pigskin newcomers were cleaning up with clumsy underhand flips.
None of us managed a Bonk, a first shot that takes out the centre pin, resulting in an ear-splitting blast from a freighter horn.
Detroit has always been a sports city, proud of its Lions, Tigers, Red Wings and Pistons. Now it has even more reason to crow with the September opening of the impressive 20,000seat Little Caesars Arena.
The new downtown home of the Detroit Red Wings and the Detroit Pistons (also a concert and event venue) is a beauty and just a few blocks from the Tigers’ Comerica Park and the Lions’ Ford Field, creating a downtown sports hub.
Further evidence of once-bankrupt Detroit’s impressive comeback, the exterior of Little Caesars looks more like a streetscape than an arena. Inside, it’s open and airy. There are nods to Detroit’s previous ice palaces, including the original neon letters from the Art Deco Olympia sign.
The main floor is dominated by a wide concessions area called the Via with team merchandise stores and sit-down eateries, including Kid Rock’s Made in Detroit.
Of course, there are hotdogs, Little Caesars pizza and beer, but you can also get a craft burger, cocktails or a glass of Prosecco.
There are more concessions and eateries on the upper level, which has a great view of the city skyline.
Take a behind-the-scenes tour, which includes a stop in the dressing room. Tickets can be booked through the arena website.
The arena anchors the new Detroit District, launched with the slogan “from blight to beauty.” It’s a 50-block work-live-play-andstay patch linking downtown and midtown and has shopping, bars, restaurants and hotels. A free District Detroit App helps with navigation.
Among notable hotels coming next year is the Shinola Hotel, from the Detroit-based hip luxury goods brand.
The Siren Hotel, in the historic Wurlitzer Building, and the Element Detroit Downtown, also in a historic building, the Metropolitan, also open in 2018.
The world is starting to take notice of the new Detroit. Travel guide Lonely Planet named the city No. 2 on its list of top 10 “best in travel” cities for 2018.
Detroit gets its first velodrome in December, but if you’re more interested in having a beer while you cycle, the Michigan Pedaler is just the ticket. Hop on one of 12 bike seats on the rolling bar.
There’s electrical assist to make it easy and a driver to keep you safely on course.
Liquor laws allow you to bring your own alcoholic drinks in cans or plastic glasses.
We had fun dropping in at some of the city’s f avourite dive joints on our tour, including the Temple Bar, where the barkeep told us stories about the neighbourhood’s more colourful characters while we drank bottles of Ghetto blaster from Motor City Brewing Works, one of dozens of craft brewers in the city.
The next morning, we were off to try another sport in an unusual setting, kayaking on the Detroit River from Belle Isle, accessible by bridge and not far from downtown.
Tiffany VanDeHey of Riverside Kayak Connection said Detroit isn’t usually associated with kayaking. But the river is clean, you can spot wildlife and the views of the city skyline and Windsor are impressive as we paddled the historic waters, used for years by Indigenous people, fur traders, rum-runners and now, us.