Michigan Panthers open at Ford Field this week, amid crowded Detroit sports landscape

There's quite the battle underway for Detroit sports fans' attention and dollars over the next month, with the NCAA Tournament Midwest Regional at Little Caesars Arena this weekend, the Tigers' home opener next week, and the NFL Draft later next month.

Amid all that, the Michigan Panthers are set to open their second season playing at Ford Field in Detroit, albeit in a new league, the United Football League.

The Panthers open the pro spring football season Saturday, at 4 p.m., against the St. Louis Battlehawks.

How might the Panthers be able to stand out, amid the crowd?

"We should just offer free admission," Mike Nolan, the Panthers' second-year head coach, said with a laugh Monday. "I might get in trouble for saying that.

"That'd be my idea."

On a more serious note, Nolan sold the talent of the team, which he said is much improved from a year ago, thanks to the offseason merger of the Panthers' old United States Football League and the XFL. Cutting 16 teams down to eight naturally improved the talent of the entire UFL, Nolan said.

"I think we're gonna have an explosive offense," Nolan said Monday in a Zoom call with reporters, from the team's training camp in Arlington, Texas. "It'll be fun to watch.

"I'm really excited about this group."

The Panthers got their roster down to the 50 that they'll showcase for the opener, which features a matchup between a team from last year's USFL and XFL.

The Panthers will play a 10-game regular-season schedule, with five games at Ford Field. Single-game season tickets and individual-game tickets are on sale, starting at $100 for season tickets and $22 for individual tickets.

"We've gotten a lot better as a football team," said Nolan, whose team went 4-6 in the USFL regular season last year, and lost in the first round of the playoffs. "It's gonna be a good group of players."

The offense figures to be the story, with a big group of wide receivers, including Devin Gray out of Cincinnati, Trey Quinn out of SMU, Devin Ross out of Colorado and Marcus Simms out of West Virginia. E.J. Perry out of Brown is likely to be the starting quarterback again, with Danny Etling out of LSU backing up, though that's not official yet. Saginaw Valley State's Nate McCrary is part of the running back group under new offensive coordinator Marcel Bellefeuille, who thrived with the now-defunct Philadelphia Stars in last year's USFL.

The defense is led by San Jose State's Frank Ginda, last year's defensive player of the year in the USFL, and Mississippi's Breeland Speaks, last year's sack leader in the USFL.

The Panthers played their first season of the USFL in Birmingham, Alabama, in 2022, then moved to Detroit, sharing a hub with the Stars in 2023. They also practiced at Eastern Michigan throughout 2023, which made their players available to be a part of the community. This year, they're training and practicing in Arlington, flying into Detroit only for the games. That'll make connecting with the community trickier in 2024.

"The best way we connect," said Nolan, the former head coach of the NFL's San Francisco 49ers, "is just to bring a great product to Ford Field when they get there."

tpaul@detroitnews.com

@tonypaul1984