The Auburn Hills Pistons Considering A Move To Downtown

[uchi90]

Originally Posted by jonnynonos

I agree with you 100%. Everyone attacks Illitch but he was almost literally the only down there in the late '80s/early '90s.

I've heard the arguments about him sitting on buildings before and I don't know much about it, but it might be more complicated than meets eye. Tax breaks play into a lot of this stuff. And some billionaires are riskier than others. In any event how many does he own.

You do realize there was more economic development in Detroit in the 80s and 90s than there has been in the last 15 years, right? Buildings were built in the 80s and 90s. All you've built in the last 15 years is a few payer funded stadiums.

There's this weird false notion NOTHING was happening in Detroit in the 80s and 90s. Not to mention Detroit had over 1M residents 20 years ago. Moving the hoop team back to Detroit is some sort of tax/branding scheme. Gores doesn't give two sh-ts about the city.

[animatedmartian]

Pistons plan to announce move back to Detroit on Tuesday

Tomorrow it will be official. The Palace will be demolished and apparently already has an auto supplier who wants to build on the land there.

[uchi90]

I honestly don't see the big deal. In a strange twist, this could help the suburbs more if the Palace is torn down and they quickly develop the M-24 land for auto suppliers. As long as it doesn't sit and rot like the Silverdome, I think it will benefit Oakland County in the long run.

[Texamichiforniasota]

Originally Posted by animatedmartian

Pistons plan to announce move back to Detroit on Tuesday

Tomorrow it will be official. The Palace will be demolished and apparently already has an auto supplier who wants to build on the land there.

It's good news for Detroit. For a city that had a more vibrant downtown, maybe it wouldn't be the best use of land. But for Detroit it's a better use than whst was there before. The issue with stadiums is limited dates of usage. Most cities have basketball and hockey teams sharing an arena as it doubles the utilization. A baseball stadium near a combination hockey/basketball arena makes a lot of sense. Baseball runs from Spring to Fall, basketball and hockey are the opposite. The combination means that almost 1/2 the days there will be an event drawing people in. That should be enough for bars and restaurants to stay in business.

Now football stadiums with their 8 home games and 2 preseason games a year are a different story. They are a poor use of downtown land, which is why so many are not in dowtowns. In fact, after LA moves to Inglewood, 10 of the 32 teams won't even play in the city they are named after, and only 14 of the remaining teams play in stadiums that are downtown or downtown adjacent. The other 8 teams play in more suburban locations in the main metro area city.

[MS313]

Originally Posted by uchi90

I honestly don't see the big deal. In a strange twist, this could help the suburbs more if the Palace is torn down and they quickly develop the M-24 land for auto suppliers. As long as it doesn't sit and rot like the Silverdome, I think it will benefit Oakland County in the long run.

Of course you don't, no surprise there. But it's a pretty big deal for the city and a HUGE deal for the Brush Park area that used to be mostly vacant. It will benefit Detroit alot more than it benefited Auburn Hills.

[uchi90]

You folks are too excited for these zero sum moves. Big picture this doesn't help anyone.

Burbs competing against the city, tax payers on the hook for an arena. Come on, use your heads. This doesn't create any real new jobs. Smoke and mirrors.

[animatedmartian]

Pistons deal: Bonds would pay for arena upgrade

So now it's official. As of next year, all 4 Detroit teams are now within walking distance of each other within the city of Detroit.

Financials: The cost to alter the Little Ceaser's Arena to accommodate the Pistons is about $35 million. This will be covered by bonds backed by the taxpayers within the DDA. The Pistons also need office space and a practice court. The DDA will only cover up to $55 million otherwise the Pistons have to fund the construction of these facilities on their own and outside of the arena. Nothing yet has been approved so far as some other details are being worked out.

In addition, the Pistons will build (and pay for) a community center/practice facility in a yet unknown location and will pay for the building/rebuilding of 60 basketball courts around the city. The Pistons will also give 20,000 tickets per year to Detroit kids and residents as apart of community benefits.

[usroute10]

Originally Posted by uchi90

You folks are too excited for these zero sum moves. Big picture this doesn't help anyone.

Burbs competing against the city, tax payers on the hook for an arena. Come on, use your heads. This doesn't create any real new jobs. Smoke and mirrors.

Is this the same thing you said when Chrysler moved from Highland Park to Auburn Hills in 1995 - THE BURBS COMPETING AGAINST THE CITY... TAX PAYERS ON THE HOOK....DOESN'T CREATE ANY REAL NEW JOBS!!!

Was this the sentiment of the 'burbs when other notable companies left Detroit for the suburbs like Carhartt, Plante-Moran, Campbell-Ewald, etc.

[Texamichiforniasota]

Originally Posted by uchi90

You folks are too excited for these zero sum moves. Big picture this doesn't help anyone.

Burbs competing against the city, tax payers on the hook for an arena. Come on, use your heads. This doesn't create any real new jobs. Smoke and mirrors.

I would agree if they were proposing building the Red Wings and Pistons each there own arena, but since they are redesigning Little Cesars to make one well utilized arena, it's a net gain for the metro. It's a financial no-brainier to combine basketball and hockey in one arena. Only Detroit, Miami, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Phoenix, and the Bay Area have NBA teams and NHL teams playing in separate arenas.

[Coldjensens]

It is a net gain actually. The burbs get the auto supplier and their taxes and jobs. Detroit gets another pro sports team and an interesting attraction: 3-4 pro sports teams (and a Jail) all within sight of ne another and surrounded by a designed planned community built specifically to surround a group of professional sports stadiums.


If nothing else, it will tell us whether urban planners actually know anything. Here, they get to plan design and build an entire complex virtually from scratch. Can they actually design a workable stadium based community?

If it works, they can say "See? It works. We were right" If it fails we will know stadium community projects simply cannot be made to work. And stpop spending money on them.