Toronto firm buys Mich. stadium for $583K

A judge has cleared the way for aCanadian company to buy the Pontiac Silverdome in Detroit, Mich., despite an attempt by a competitive bidder to block the sale.

Toronto-based Triple Properties, Inc. will pay $583,000 US for the 80,300-seat stadium andformer home of the National Football League's Detroit Lions. It will take ownership in early January.

That irksSilver Stallion Corp., headed by Bloomfield Hills, Mich., lawyer H. Wallace Parker, which in 2008 bid $20 million on the stadium. That bid fell through in a dispute about environmental cleanup costs.

Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Edward Sosnick had earlier issued a temporary restraining order blocking the sale to Triple Properties but on Monday refused to grant Silver Stallion a preliminary injuction.

At a hearing Monday, Silver Stallion lawyer David McGruder said the people of Pontiac would be harmed by the sale and thatthe deal contained no guarantee it would create jobs in the economically depressed city.

In his written opinion, Sosnick said Silver Stallion can continue to pursue legal action against Pontiac but that the company's claims are unlikely to succeed.

The Silverdome wasbuilt for $55.7 million in 1975. The Lions played there from 1975to 2001, when theymoved to Detroit's Ford Field. Pontiac has been spending $1.5 million US a year since then to maintain the largely unused stadium.

The National Basketball Association's Detroit Pistonsalso played at the Silverdome.