First reported by Tony Paul of Detroit News, it seems that the Michigan Panthers are coming home. On Thursday January 26th the USFL is scheduled to make an announcement at Ford Field which seems to be the favorite for the Northern Hub for the 2023 season.

While the details of the announcement have yet to be disclosed, however it does appear that the Panthers will be returning to Michigan as they did in the USFL 1.0. While Ford Field does appear to be the favorite the USFL were in talks with EMU at one point however the University confirmed via the Detroit News that Rynearson Stadium was not going to be housing the Michigan Panthers.

Tony Paul did tweet that it is possible the Panthers could be utilizing EMU’s facilities as a practice field throughout the season.

Detroit looks to be the third hub for the USFL. With the Showboats announcing in November that they are returning to the league using Memphis as a Hub, and Birmingham continuing to serve as a hub for the Stallions and the New Orleans Breakers the USFL is making strides to spread teams out and expand their market into teams “home cities”

The Panthers used to play at the Pontiac Silverdome during the first iteration of the USFL. Michigan won the USFL inaugural Championship in 1983 and played at the Silverdome for the 1983 and 1984 seasons before merging with the Oakland Invaders in 1985. In 2018 the Silverdome was demolished 34 years after the last Panthers game.

With the possible announcement of Detroit housing the Panthers, the USFL could be looking towards Canton, Philadelphia or Pittsburgh for the next hub. While nothing is official until Thursday it extremely likely with the attendance of Detroit’s Mayor and Fox Sports CEO Eric Shanks bodes well for the fact that the Panthers will be coming home back to Michigan.