PALM BEACH, Fla. — Lions team president Rod Wood sat down with local reporters at the conclusion of the Annual League Meetings Tuesday. Wood discussed a number of business and NFL topics, and here are my six main takeaways from that session:
1. Allen Park is home for the foreseeable future
There had been talk at previous league meetings about the Lions potentially moving their home base out of Allen Park, but Wood said Tuesday that Allen Park will be the team's home base for the foreseeable future.
The Lions have spent millions in recent years upgrading the Meijer Performance Center and most recently upgraded their locker room and weight room this past offseason.
Detroit surveys their players after every season and spend a lot of time with the leadership group talking about how they can maximize performance at their current home facility. The players had a lot of input in the redesign of the locker room and weight room.
The Lions recently upgraded their dining facilities and indoor turf at the Meijer Performance Center. As a result of those investments, Wood said the plan is to stay in Allen Park.
"We have no plans to move right now," Wood said. "We've looked at alternatives and there's not a great location that is superior to where we are. We are convenient to downtown, convenient to the airport, we are near all the highways. People have decided where to live based on where the facility is. It would be very disruptive to move."
2. International game likely in 2026
"I think it's highly likely," Wood said. "I've talked to the league about it and we're certainly overdue."
Detroit hasn't played internationally since 2015 in London. The Lions have an extra home game in 2026 and Wood is pretty confident one of those will be played internationally.
With the international markets the Lions have now joined, that could be a great opportunity to strengthen those relationships.
The Lions are a big television draw with their games coming in No. 1 on CBS, ABC, NBC and Amazon while ranking No. 2 on Fox this past season.
Wood expects a full slate of primetime games on the NFL schedule this upcoming season.
3. Season ticket info
Wood presented an interesting piece of data about the popularity of Lions season tickets. He said the average price of Lions home game tickets for the 10 games this past season, including the preseason, was $404 on the secondary market.
The second highest in the NFL was $270. That's nearly 50 percent higher than the next team in the league. The Lions saw that and adjusted prices with a slight increase this offseason.
Detroit had a 98 percent renewal rate on tickets this offseason and still have 20,000-plus on the waiting list.
4. Wood is excited about international expansion
The Lions already have global marketing rights in Canada, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and have expanded their reach into Brazil this offseason.
"The attention in Bavaria started in Germany first," Wood said. "Certainly with (Amon-Ra) St. Brown's popularity there and connections. He has a camp over there and we sent some people along with him last year to be over there for the camp and will probably do the same thing this year. We had a couple watch parties over there for Lions fans, so we're growing a fan base."
Wood said they are working on some sponsorships in Germany already.
"Brazil, we kind of intended to do that last year but we put it on the back burner to focus on Germany and Canada the first year. Brazil is another market that has a lot of football fans down there. Ford has a big operation down there, so it could lead into some other sponsorships that are auto-related and etcetera. Just build a better fanbase worldwide and now we have a lot of popular players and playing to that is a good thing."
5. Extending naming rights with Ford was important
It's something the team has been working on for a while as they announced last week the extension of their naming rights agreement with Ford Motor Company for Ford Field through at least the 2036 season.
"It was important, obviously. It's something we've been working on for a while," Wood said. "We have the Final Four coming in 2027 ... we wanted to get it done to really maximize, for Ford, the benefits of being able to talk about the naming rights beyond the Final Four."
Economically, it's a much more modern deal that will generate more revenue for the Lions franchise. The old deal was early on in the naming rights of a building more than 20 years old now and much lower than the current market for such deals.
"It worked out great for us and great for them," Wood said.
It extends one of the longest naming rights agreements between a corporation and stadium in the league. Wood said Ford Field has the No. 1 recall of any stadium in the country because of the connection to the Ford Family, Ford Motor Company and Detroit.
6. Rule changes, bylaws and resolutions
The league approved three playing rule changes, three bylaw proposals and three resolutions while shelving more for discussion until May's League Meetings including Detroit's proposals on changing playoff seeding and roster rules.
Detroit's proposal to change the automatic first-down portion of the illegal defensive holding and illegal contact didn't pass, however. Wood said only the Lions and Jets, with new head coach Aaron Glenn, voted for Detroit's proposal to take out the automatic first down on defensive holding and illegal contact penalties.
Among the approved changes was moving touchbacks out to the 35-yard line, which Wood was in favor of. He said they value special teams in Detroit and thinks it can play to their advantage.
Wood said he was a little reluctant to change the overtime rules at the original proposal of 15 minutes. It was moved back to a 10-minute period and they were more supportive of that. NFL owners passed a rule where both teams will have a chance to possess the football in overtime, aligning with postseason rules.
"I think it will force people to play a little more aggressive, you only have 10 minutes," he said. "We voted in favor of that after the change."
Detroit's playoff proposal is going to be discussed again in May and there could be a different version of it with maybe some language about division winners with a .500 record or lower getting a lower seed than a non-division winner with a better record. Stay tuned.
A full list of approved rule changes, bylaws and resolutions can be found here.
