OT: Red Wings Extend Lease Negotiations With The Joe
http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=5344118
Not that this is a surprise...I would love to see them just fix up the Joe and keep them there for the next 15 years or so...just because building a new stadium isn't very likely in this economy.
They do not need to fix up the Joe. It is now the second oldest arena in the league behind MSG. The Wings are the premiere team in the NHL and deserve better
There is plenty of room behind the Fox for a new area for both the Pistons and Wings. This would place it on the the corner of Grand River which would be great for some type of light rail/ transportation system to user patrons the mile or so to the Ilitch's Motor City Casino.
Having two teams use the new facility would bolster the amount of people coming downtown throughout the winter, and this would really benefit the city.
The area is ready for development, and I really hope some type of plans are released/ groundbreaking in the next few year. I live about a mile north of the area and would love to see this happen.
......the Army Corp of Engineers designed that place for crying out loud. I think Illitch has proven he has good taste and is not afraid to splurge on design and amenities.
I'm pretty sure this is just a formality, because the lease is about to expire. They'll play there a few more years and move into their new arena around 2015.
the better thing to do would be to build a new Joe Louis, with the possibility of having a Pistons/Red Wings stadium. Ilitch has MORE than enough money to pay for this, and it would 1) create jobs, and 2) possibly bring the fourth and final Detroit franchise back down to Detroit. Thats, what, 80 more games downtown? Thats 80 more times that people will be more likely to go to bars or resteraunts and actually choose to venture to downtown Detroit.
The only bad thing would be having the Joe Louis stay dormant. The last thing Detroit needs is more vacant buildings.
That being said, good for them, I'm not mad they're staying. The Joe has history. They still would probably move the Pistons down here if Ilitch bought them, he's all about revitalizing downtown Detroit.
Ilitch has a lot of money, but I highly doubt he has $300-400 million in cash to pay for arena construction. He'd have to sell off a lot of assets to pay for that. Part of the reason why Bill Davidson built the Palace in Auburn Hills was that at the time, land there was cheap. In downtown Detroit, not so much.
Also, NBA teams play 82 total games, so there'd be 41 home games. Throw in exhibitions (not all of which are necessarily played in NBA arenas) and playoffs and you're talking around 45-48 home games in a typical season. That would help downtown's economy somewhat, but let's not get carried away - there are 365 days a year. People need to let go of the fantasy that sports franchises are this magic bullet that can turn cities around. Adding commuters isn't what Detroit really needs. It needs residents. Improving the quality of life for city residents is ultimately a greater priority than adding entertainment options for non-residents.
Dumb move. I don't know why i thought it was 80...
And, I know it's expensive, I said below that he needs money from a company or something
we had this discussion in economics on whether having a sports franchise will help the economy. The result is it doesn't really do much for economy and it's only a temporary increase(if any at all) for the city/state economy.
I don't know if Illitch would want to front for an entire arena by himself...they are expensive these days and most teams try to get money from the city.
Either way, I think Ilitch would want to do it. You would need a sponsor, ala Comerica Park, but he could, and should probably, do it.
The collections from naming rights don't really defray the cost of construction. The hockey listing at Ballparks.com (http://hockey.ballparks.com) doesn't include it yet, but Wikipedia has the new Pittsburgh arena (Consol Energy Center) costing around $321M. And I suspect that's on the low end by today's standards (not surprising...this is, after all, Pittsburgh). The Staples Center (more representative of a multi-use facility) ran $375 and opened 11 years ago. I'm sure there are many other examples to be found.
Naming rights, on the other hand, typically run $1-4M per year (excluding Atlanta, which gets $9M from Philips). See http://espn.go.com/sportsbusiness/s/stadiumnames.html for a list of rights agreements.
(I really wish the preview function worked. Why am I not able to imbed hyperlinks in the new interface?)
If Illitch buys the Pistons (as rumored), that would expediate the Wings' move to a new arena. With both the Pistons & Wings being guided by one hand to play in a state-of-the-art facility, raising the money will be a lot easier.
given the variables currently affecting life in detroit, the joe is fine. the wings don't need a ton of luxury boxes or a novelty arena; the joe is a place where people go to watch a hockey game.
The biggest problem with the Joe is that it's next door to Cobo Hall, which needs to be expanded if it wants to keep the auto show indefinitely.
I mean why build anything new and attractive in Detroit that would get people excited about the city? Just let it slowly decay until it reaches Tigers Stadium levels.
The Leafs pulled this same sort of back and forth a few years back on the ACC in Toronto. They'll find a way to screw the taxpayer of Michigan to fund a new stadium with huge tax breaks for Wings ownership. Raback that.
Also, I'm amazed the Leafs, the league leaders in revenue generation only got 1.5 million on the naming rights. The Leafs are so good at revenue generation they actually license tissue (one need only look at recent results).