Get the public to pay for it while billionaire families get their name on the Amway Stadium and make the bulk of the profits once it is open

Wednesday was a day for showing off the progress of the soon to be completed Amway Soccer Stadium in Grand Rapids. Crain’s Grand Rapids Business did a story on it, along with the recently created Amway Stadium Facebook page, which was also share by the social media page GR&Riverfront, which promotes downtown development projects.

The new soccer stadium will be open in March to host its first professional soccer league game. There has been a great deal of publicity about the Amway Stadium, along with the usual claims that it will boost the local economy.

Of course, when groups like Grand Action 2.0 first pitched the soccer stadium idea they were the first to make the claim that the stadium will benefit the local economy. It is true that the Amway stadium will generate lots of money, but the real question is who will be the primary beneficiaries. Like all Grand Rapids downtown development projects the Amway Stadium will benefit members of the Grand Rapids Power Structure and business owners in the area.

Those who will not benefit from the Soccer Stadium will be working class communities in Grand Rapids and West Michigan. In fact, working class communities have provided millions for the Amway Stadium, mostly from tax incentives from the State of Michigan, Kent County and the City of Grand Rapids.

Amway Soccer Stadium Timeline

Grand Action 2.0, which was created in the 1990s by both the DeVos and Van Andel families, first pitched the Amway Stadium idea before the pandemic.

In 2022, it was first reported that the soccer stadium project was in the works, but that a site had not yet been determined. However, at the same time that this was first reported that DP Fox Ventures LLC (DeVos owned) had acquired 407 Pearl St. NW, the site of the Big Boy restaurant on Pearl St. Several months later Grand Action 2.0 announced that the soccer stadium would be built along US 131 by Pearl St., which GRIID reported on.

Once the soccer stadium project was finalized, it would be owned by the Grand Rapids-Kent County Convention/Arena Authority (CAA). The CAA Chairman, Richard Winn, is the President of AHC Hospitality, which is the name of a hotel chain owned by the DeVos family, including the 5 hotels they own/manage in downtown Grand Rapids.

In August of 2024, those who would economically benefit most from the new soccer stadium funded the Hotel Tax ballot initiative. Check out the list of people and orgs that funded the campaign.

In November of 2024, it was announced that the name of the soccer stadium would be the Amway Stadium. The local news omitted the fact that the DDA – which approved using lots of public tax money for the project, has a DeVos family operative on that unelected board and the fact that the Kent County and Grand Rapids City Commissions are in the pocket of the DeVos family. Both of these governing bodies approved $100 million in public subsidies for the Soccer Stadium, which I reported on.

In December of 2024, it was announced that the DeVos and Van Andel families would own the professional soccer team that will play at the Amway Stadium. I wrote a post entitled, What the DeVos/Van Andel ownership of the soccer team means for Grand Rapids.

In May of 2026, Grand Rapids Mayor David LaGrand signed one of the metal beams used to construct the Amway Stadium, which was considered news.

I write all of this to say that this city is run by the DeVos families, their close friends and they will be the primary beneficiaries of the soon to be open Amway Stadium, just like the Amphitheater, the Downtown Market and the Van Andel Arena. Billionaires put their name on the building and get the public to pay for the bulk of the cost of whichever new project that Grand Action 2.0 is pushing down our throats.