Rumor has it the design for the Pistons practice facility has already been awarded to Rossetti and will be built next to MCC. It sounds like Ilitch wants this to happen and Gores is getting land for development around the practice facility and team headquarters.
When it comes to financial and revenue discussions, I think it's worth pointing out that not only is the NBA growing here and globally, they also have a massive new TV deal and could make even more money from expansion to Seattle/Vegas. There is a ton of money flowing into the franchises and owners right now. Gores bought the team for only $315 million, which was pretty cheap in relative terms. I've seen them valued as high as $800 million. I'm not sure he's going to sweat too much about parking revenues and money spent on upgrading the Palace.
I think it was a smart move by Gores. He knew Patterson would not buy the Palace but what it did was make Oakland County an unofficial real estate broker to get the Palace and grounds sold. Gores and the Pistons are good as gone and he could leave the Palace empty which would be no different than Pontiac leaving the Silverdome empty. People will say what about the money he has invested? Chump change... he's a billionaire. He is not going to miss it and with the opportunity to make more due south (will have plenty of real estate options to choose from in the District Detroit) I don't think he's gonna break a sweat. The dude just spent $100 mil on a new home.
Is the Palace still a nice viable building? Sure. Would a contender for a championship every year help attendance? Duh. None of that changes the fact that the Palace sitting at a freeway exit in suburbia with 72 acres of parking around it that you must get your car into and out of in order to do anything other than attend the event just plain sucks and couldn't be anymore 1980s lame.
Chicago, Boston, NY, LA and all the big markets do it. Even the Leafs share an arena with the Raptors. If the ice was such a big issue, I'm pretty sure mighty Toronto would not be sharing an arena with an NBA team.
Davidson chose the Silverdome over Joe Louis Arena because he got a sweet lease deal from the city of Pontiac. After that, Davidson had talks with Ilitch about merging the Pistons operations with Olympia and pooling their resources to build a joint facility, the end result being a situation like the Bulls and Blackhawks with the United Center. These talks failed (city would not budge on financing and arena revenues plus the Wings were stuck with an ironclad 30 year lease at the Joe), so Davidson decided to build his own arena in Auburn Hills. He agreed to privately fund The Palace if Oakland County agreed to fund the infrastructure. This worked for him financially because he got to keep all the profits from parking and concession, which he would have had to share in Detroit. That is how we ended up with the Pistons and Wings playing in different arenas. That's also the reason for the fued between Ilitch and Davidson. Davidson knew Ilitch could not build a new arena in the city of Detroit until his lease at the Joe was up (1979-2009) and had two decades to book all the premier concerts and shows at the Palace. He basically had zero competition because the Joe was obsolete the minute it opened. If Detroit had a state-of-the-art arena at the time, I'm pretty sure Davidson would have kept the Pistons in Detroit. Anyways, Gores knows the LCA will be the new leading concert venue in the region and with all the ancillary development nearby, he probably wants a piece of the action before it's too late.
Recent Comments
This is without a doubt the best Michigan related site. Thanks Brian!
Rumor has it the design for the Pistons practice facility has already been awarded to Rossetti and will be built next to MCC. It sounds like Ilitch wants this to happen and Gores is getting land for development around the practice facility and team headquarters.
When it comes to financial and revenue discussions, I think it's worth pointing out that not only is the NBA growing here and globally, they also have a massive new TV deal and could make even more money from expansion to Seattle/Vegas. There is a ton of money flowing into the franchises and owners right now. Gores bought the team for only $315 million, which was pretty cheap in relative terms. I've seen them valued as high as $800 million. I'm not sure he's going to sweat too much about parking revenues and money spent on upgrading the Palace.
I think it was a smart move by Gores. He knew Patterson would not buy the Palace but what it did was make Oakland County an unofficial real estate broker to get the Palace and grounds sold. Gores and the Pistons are good as gone and he could leave the Palace empty which would be no different than Pontiac leaving the Silverdome empty. People will say what about the money he has invested? Chump change... he's a billionaire. He is not going to miss it and with the opportunity to make more due south (will have plenty of real estate options to choose from in the District Detroit) I don't think he's gonna break a sweat. The dude just spent $100 mil on a new home.
Is the Palace still a nice viable building? Sure. Would a contender for a championship every year help attendance? Duh. None of that changes the fact that the Palace sitting at a freeway exit in suburbia with 72 acres of parking around it that you must get your car into and out of in order to do anything other than attend the event just plain sucks and couldn't be anymore 1980s lame.
Chicago, Boston, NY, LA and all the big markets do it. Even the Leafs share an arena with the Raptors. If the ice was such a big issue, I'm pretty sure mighty Toronto would not be sharing an arena with an NBA team.
Davidson chose the Silverdome over Joe Louis Arena because he got a sweet lease deal from the city of Pontiac. After that, Davidson had talks with Ilitch about merging the Pistons operations with Olympia and pooling their resources to build a joint facility, the end result being a situation like the Bulls and Blackhawks with the United Center. These talks failed (city would not budge on financing and arena revenues plus the Wings were stuck with an ironclad 30 year lease at the Joe), so Davidson decided to build his own arena in Auburn Hills. He agreed to privately fund The Palace if Oakland County agreed to fund the infrastructure. This worked for him financially because he got to keep all the profits from parking and concession, which he would have had to share in Detroit. That is how we ended up with the Pistons and Wings playing in different arenas. That's also the reason for the fued between Ilitch and Davidson. Davidson knew Ilitch could not build a new arena in the city of Detroit until his lease at the Joe was up (1979-2009) and had two decades to book all the premier concerts and shows at the Palace. He basically had zero competition because the Joe was obsolete the minute it opened. If Detroit had a state-of-the-art arena at the time, I'm pretty sure Davidson would have kept the Pistons in Detroit. Anyways, Gores knows the LCA will be the new leading concert venue in the region and with all the ancillary development nearby, he probably wants a piece of the action before it's too late.