Pontiac Silverdome to Host International Soccer Match AC Milan – Panathinaikos FC

In the midst of World Cup fever, the new owners of the Pontiac Silverdome announced that they will once again attempt to host an international soccer match.

Italy’s AC Milan and Greece’s Panathinaikos FC are scheduled to play Aug. 6 for the first time in North America.

The event, dubbed the “Match of the Titans,” will be played on a natural grass surface that will be installed in the Silverdome for the event.

“From the beginning, my family has wanted to bring a sporting event of this caliber to the Silverdome, and we’re incredibly excited to bring top-level international soccer back to metro Detroit,” said Steve Apostolopoulos, director of the sports division of Triple Sports & Entertainment LLC, which operates the Silverdome, in a press release.

“This game will be a celebration of the revival of the Silverdome as a world-class sports and entertainment venue.”

The event will be the second attempt at hosting an international soccer match at the Silverdome by the Apostolopoulos family.

The Green Soccer Bowl was canceled in May after some of the teams couldn’t obtain travel visas. The original event had been scheduled as a five-team tournament in February, but that was later reduced to just Kenya vs. Malaysia before being scrapped.

The venue hosted first-round games in the 1994 World Cup, when the dome was owned by the city of Pontiac. It also was home to the Detroit Express of the now-defunct North American Soccer League in 1978-80.

The Silverdome, which was sold at an auction last November to Toronto-based Triple Properties Inc. for $583,000, has tried everything from hosting drive-in movies to a monster truck event in late April.

The facility was originally built in 1975 for $56 million. In 2002, the Detroit Lions left the 80,300-seat stad

ium when they moved to Ford Field.

Tickets for the AC Milan-Panathinaikos match are on sale now at SilverdomeTickets.com and at the Silverdome box office.