DETROIT ? Christmas morning has been pushed up to late August.

That’s what it will feel like Saturday when professional football returns to downtown Detroit for the first time in a generation. That’s what it will feel like at the thought of something shiny, new and unspoiled.

And then the Lions will take the field.

Ford Field’s unveiling at Saturday afternoon’s exhibition game against Pittsburgh will be like unwrapping the toy you’ve wanted for months only to discover that the batteries aren’t included and the 7-Eleven around the corner is closed for the day.

Excitement soon morphs into disappointment and then, a few hours later, your attention turns to something else.

New stadiums aren’t panaceas, especially if they’re burdened with the same old frustrations unfolding within. If there are any doubts, glance across Brush Street at one of the newer jewels in baseball, Comerica Park.

There is always a short-term invigoration with a new facility. The Lions’ players, or, more specifically, their knees, can’t wait to test the new FieldTurf that’s comprised of mulched, worn-out tires, some probably from Firestone. There’s more shock absorption than in the old AstroTurf carpeting, but what happens if there’s a rash of offensive lineman rollover accidents?

“We’ll have the best football facilities in the league,” coach Marty Mornhinweg said, “when you consider Ford Field and our new practice and training facility in Allen Park. When you look at that and the changes that we’ve made with our personnel over the last two years, we are poised and primed for the future and we’re ready to go.”

But go where?

Fans’ tolerance levels increase some with the opening of a new stadium. Fans are more likely to put up with the same mistakes a wee bit longer if they’re coming in new surroundings. But the Lions are inching closer to using up the allotment of goodwill generated with Mornhinweg’s and Matt Millen’s trumpeted arrival a year ago and now Ford Field’s.

At some point, the franchise needs to generate excitement the old-fashioned way with playoff victories. But the league insists that luxury suite-saturated new stadiums are an essential component to that equation. It’s the same argument that Mike Ilitch used when selling the public on Comerica Park’s virtues. Build a better revenue stream and the free-agent talent and, hopefully, the victories will come. But the NFL’s one-for-all and all-for-one socialism makes such a projection more viable than with major league baseball.

Green Bay and Chicago are now refurbishing existing facilities. The Bears will play this season at the University of Illinois in Champaign. The Packers will continue to play at Lambeau during its expansion. When the 2003 season begins, only eight of the NFL’s 32 teams will play in stadiums 10 years or older since their construction.

The Lions had the worst lease deal in the league with the Silverdome, earning little from parking and concessions while sharing an equitable amount of the luxury suite proceeds with the city of Pontiac. But with Ford Field, they get all they can milk. And needless to say, they can hardly wait for the opening chorus of the cash register symphony.