Ford Field power outage postpones girls flag football championship

A power outage in downtown Detroit that affected Ford Field has postponed the start of the Michigan Girls High School Flag Football League state championship tournament.

According to Ford Field's official statement, "Due to unforeseen circumstances, the Michigan girls high school flag football championship will be postponed to a later date. Ford Field is currently experiencing power connection issues that are affecting the ability to open the stadium at this time. Participating teams will be made aware of the makeup dates and times for the games."

Wyandotte Roosevelt and Wayne Memorial were scheduled to open the tournament at 8 a.m., followed by Goodrich and Flint Carman-Ainsworth at 9:30 a.m., Bloomfield Hills and Warren Woods-Tower at 11 a.m., Gibraltar Carlson and Detroit Leadership at 12:30 p.m., Brighton and Clawson at 2 p.m., Redford Thurston and Plymouth-Canton at 3:30 p.m. and L'Anse Creuse North and Detroit King at 5 p.m.

The postponement likely had repercussions for many teams competing.

Saturday is one of the busiest days on the Michigan high school sports calendar, with the MHSAA hosting track and field state finals, baseball and softball district championships and other postseason contests in sports such as soccer, lacrosse and volleyball.

Many flag football players also compete in track, softball and soccer. Some could be unavailable because the power outage has created scheduling conflicts, particularly in metro Detroit, where athletes were planning to compete in flag football and another sport because of shorter travel times between venues.

This is the fourth spring the Lions have sponsored a girls flag football season. The league nearly doubled in size from 41 teams to 80 in 2026.

Brandon Folsom covers high school sports in metro Detroit for Hometown Life. Follow him on his new X.com account at @folsomwrites .