Pistons owner to sell to Ilitch?

In stadium years, it's slightly younger than the Coliseum in Rome.

 

How many suites does the Joe have? It doesn't matter how new the stadium is, just ask the operators arenas in Charlotte, Miami and Orlando.

 

What Ilitch really wants is the entertainment arm of the Pistons, the one that controls The Palace, Meadowbrook and Pine Knob (aka DTE Music Theater).


As far as the Joe, it is one of the older buildings in the NHL. MSG is older, but it's gone through numerous renovations.

 

33 years is insanely old for a sports arena these days.

 

The Palace, one of the very very few major sports arenas built pretty much completely with private money, was built in 1988, has been pretty much continually updated/renovated ever since that time, and is still a virtual SOTA arena.

JLA is undeniably obsolete -- it was built on the cheap in the late 70s and encompasses all the worst of 70s sports arenas (no suites, cramped narrow concourses, sheer-cliff-like cement staircases to exit doors, bad sightlines, tinny acoustics, etc etc) and there's certainly no debate the Red Wings need a new arena. There's also absolutely no debate the Pistons do not.

If Ilitch wants to build a new arena completely out of his own pocket (he's a billionaire; he can), that's his own decision.

But not one goddamn rusty penny of public money from ANY source whatsoever should go for it -- or else, there should, literally, be rioting in the streets.

 

Palace Sports and Entertainment is a huge cash cow, and not because of the Pistons. Pine Knob/DTE prints money, as does the Palace itself when it comes to concerts. Add in the Fox Theatre and Comerica Park, and Ilitch has a monopoly on major concert venues in Metro Detroit. That's the reason he wants the sale, not the Pistons themselves. They are just a bargaining chip for the new arena.

 

Presuming the sale goes through, Ilitch will own:

1. The Tigers, with a (virtually) brand-new SOTA stadium substantially (not entirely) paid for by taxpayers.

2. The Red Wings with a decrepit 30-year-old municipally-owned arena.

3. The Pistons with a franchise-owned meticulously-maintained arena in Auburn Hills.

He wants a new hockey/basketball arena downtown to concentrate all his enterprises in the Foxtown district.

So essentially what he will want is for the Pistons to abandon a fully paid-for SOTA arena to become co-tenants with the Red Wings in a $400-$500 million downtown arena paid for by taxpayers.

When the Pistons abandon the Palace, of course peripheral businesses in the Auburn Hills area of Oakland County will be hurt. That business will go to downtown businesses largely owned and contolled by Olympia Holdings.

 

This is shaping up to be a divisive city vs. suburbs issue - and it could get as hot as when Coleman Young was Detroit's mayor and openly hated the suburbs.

Oakland County's executive, L. Brooks Patterson, is quite outspoken, and he will holler about this one. I wonder how mild-mannered Dave Bing will respond.

Bing is cornered because he'll either have to support a new Pistons/Wings arena in Foxtown or see the Wings flee for The Palace.

I don't know if this can be done, but if it can, it'd be great for the city: Overhaul JLA so that the Wings and Pistons can share it. During the overhaul, the teams would share The Palace.

The Palace still is a cash cow for concerts and other events like Disney On Ice.

Bottom line, as I said before, I really, really don't want taxpayer money used for any of this.

 

Just like the U-M athletic department is run by a guy that produced such shitty pizza that the current CEO is still apologizing in TV ads.

 

It does have suites. They just suck. Honestly, the red carpet is probably from 1992. The televisions in there aren't even flat screens, let alone flat panels and the views are among the worst in the entire building.

 

Wings and Pistons share the Palace for a couple years while JLA is completely renovated down to the blocks (at the complete expense of Ilitch).

When the new JLA opens, both teams play approximately 25 games a year in their "home" arena and 15 in their "vacation home" (the other place).