theytookourjobs

August 24th, 2017 at 10:09 AM ^

I'm not too surprised.  It's kind of in the middle of nowhwere and the acoustics sucked for concerts.  I've been to a few concerts at Ford Field, and the sound just destroys what the palace had!

mjv

August 24th, 2017 at 10:37 AM ^

agreed.  downtown is a location that is far more conducive to get to for people who don't live in Oakland County.  Getting to the Palace from Ann Arbor/Washtenaw County was a disaster.  Its probably easier for Eastsiders to get downtown than to Auburn Hills.

It was dumb to build the Palace where it was built.  It was a great facility that was a trend setter in terms of what teams wanted -- multilevel suites and first class accomodations for the teams' best customers.  And it is a shame that it wasn't even open 30 years, but this is the trend.  The Georgia Dome, what seems to be an incredibly successful facility that has been incredibly relevant, opened 9/6/1992, closed 6/9/17 and will be demolished 11/20/17 -- just over 25 years.

ypsituckyboy

August 24th, 2017 at 10:10 AM ^

That area is really becoming a hotbed for foreign auto suppliers. Many N.A. HQ buildings for French/German/Japanese companies up there. Best use for the land is probably to tear it down and replace it with a few large Class A office buildings. If I were on the Auburn Hills City Commission, that's what I'd push for.

 

UM Fan from Sydney

August 24th, 2017 at 10:32 AM ^

I'm not a Pistons fan, but have a thought. How about the Pistons play games much closer to Detroit or in Detroit?

NOTE: I am aware that some teams, like the Cowboys, don't play in the city their name claims.

Chalky White

August 25th, 2017 at 9:28 AM ^

I agree. I always figured that because they own their building and land, they could just undercut Lil Cease arena on event pricing just because they can. A new arena is only new for so long. After a few years, events will book the cheapest facility. Now Ilitch can charge whatever he wants. There is one less arena to provide competition.

WMUgoblue

August 24th, 2017 at 11:01 AM ^

As someone who worked the box office there and knows multiple people losing their jobs there it's a damn shame. They renovated it just about 2 years ago and it still looks great, and now it's about to go the way of the Silverdome, like I said it's a damn shame.

translator82

August 24th, 2017 at 1:36 PM ^

I was an usher, or more specifically a "Guest Services Agent," at the Palace during the summers of 2000 and 2001 and the majority of people I worked with were great. Sometimes they had to be hardasses during concerts though with people sneaking into sections they weren't supposed to be, smoking in the arena, blocking the aisles dancing, and similar stuff like that. The two toughest concerts I worked there were Jimmy Page and the Black Crowes, the Up in Smoke Tour with Snoop Dogg/Eminem/Ice Cube...fun, but crowd control was a challenge. Same employees obviously worked at Pine Knob (Ozzfest was always difficult and working it was a mandatory event).

But the Pistons memories are the best...all the playoff games I attended from 2002 to 2005 will stand out the most, especially Game 3 of the 2004 Finals.

Leaders And Best

August 24th, 2017 at 11:28 AM ^

It was a great building and set the new standard in the NBA that caused a wave of new construction by other teams. But 30 years old is not relatively new. The Palace is one of the oldest arenas in the NBA. Only MSG and Oracle Arena are older. And Oracle will be gone in a couple years.

There are around 5-10 NBA teams that have replaced or are replacing stadiums around the same age at the Palace. But the Palace has held up much better with time than the ones those other teams occupied.

LSAClassOf2000

August 24th, 2017 at 11:42 AM ^

The Palace was a great venue for hoops as well as for other things, but yeah, the fact that it was in Auburn Hills and I've spent my life living in Washtenaw and now Wayne County made it hard to gather the will to see more than a handful of games a season there. Little Caesar's Arena, which is a 25-minute drive from my house, will probably inspire me to see a little more pro basketball in person.....OK, some better play from the Pistons would help there too. 

nerv

August 24th, 2017 at 12:16 PM ^

I am really going to miss a stadium with its own dedicated parking. Now we get to do the Detroit parking hustle shuffle for every game, concert, and show.