Detroit Breaks Ground On New Velodrome, Sports Complex

DETROIT (WWJ) - Detroit is getting a Velodrome.

A groundbreaking was held Tuesday for the new, $4 million sports complex that will feature a steep, oval track used for cycling.

The Detroit Fitness Foundation is funding the project, on the corner of Mack Ave. and I-75 on the city's east side.

"The general public will be able to do some walking in the winter time, do some jogging, in-line skating, cycling," Executive Director Dale Hughes told reporters.

"Then we're gonna have an indoor, on the infield of the Velodrome, will be a fitness area. So we'll have Zumba classes, yoga classes — it's really going to be a new rec center that features a world-class Olympic-style Velodrome."

Activities will be free for Detroit youth and senior citizens.

Hughes said their goal is also to prepare young people for Olympic competition in cycling. "We will have only the second permanent indoor velodrome in the whole United States," he said.

Added Detroit City Councilwoman Mary Sheffield: "It creates a different sense of recreation that, you know, most of or young people are not exposed to and so I'm just excited that we will have this state-of-the-art world-class facility."

The sports complex should be complete in October.