In the midst of the Detroit sports desert ,where its major league teams are so bad that none can make the playoffs, there is the bright star of the Detroit City Football Club who have. “Le Rouge” play their games before energized and youthful supporters who trek to and often pack ancient Keyworth Stadium which is embedded in a living neighborhood in the heart of old, and new, industrial Detroit. There is no nearby parking in the already always densely-parked streets of Hamtramck. Everybody gets to walk.


My friend and guide had me park at Joseph Campau and Holbrook, in a large strip mall lot that was filling with arriving fans. I suggested we take the quarter mile walk along Roosevelt Street.

After it all was President Franklin Roosevelt who inaugurated the stadium on October 15, 1936, during his second campaign for president. Keyworth was the first Depression-era Works Progress Administration [WPA] project in the state of Michigan. The street was named after FDR following the event. At the end of the street the light towers of Keyworth appear.

Hamtramck has long been the landing strip of Detroit immigrants. The current generation is largely from the Muslim Middle East and South Asian Bengalis, also Muslim. Consequently Hamtramck is governed by a Muslim Mayor and City Council. It is a repeated history as previous immigrant waves of Poles, Ukrainians, Bosnians, and others settled in Hamtramck’s inexpensive starter housing and turned their immigrant energies into prosperity from whence they could move away to more luxuriant settings, leaving behind space for the next wave.


The arriving crowd thickens at the Roosevelt Street entrance, so my friend directed us to the. Quieter Goodson Street entrance where one sees how tightly the stadium sits cheek-to-jowl with the neighborhood.


So tight that one can barely photograph the stadium name.


Once inside we walk toward the concourse at the north end of the field.


It opens to an expansive one acre space of kiosks and eateries.








We head for the east side stands where my friend says the die-hard fans hang. The teams are warming up as we arrive.


We climb to the top. All seating is bleachers but, as my friend correctly predicts, it is irrelevant as everybody in this fanatic fan section will be standing for the entire game.


The horizon to the south reveals some familiar places. Let’s zoom in for a look.


The game begins. Capo’s with bullhorns lead the crowd in chants, soccer songs and cheers, some with not-for-TV words.


Late in the first period “Le Rouge” score first and the stands celebrate with team colors smoke and banners.




Le Rouge had hoped for a win to get homefield advantage in the upcoming playoffs, but had to settle for a 2-2 tie. And so we leave this fun and insightful evening and walk out into the Hamtramck night passing by the classic Painted Lady bar en route to our car.