NEW WINGS ARENA MORE THAN A HOCKEY RINK

By Mark Wilson
September 25, 2014

Let’s get the skeptical portion of our show out of the way, shall we?

The naysayers and “Negative Nellies” will tell ya that ONLY the Ilitch family stands to profit and prosper from the new “District Detroit” downtown with the arena and entertainment/living complex. It’ll be a playground for the wealthy.

It won’t be so much a treasure for a struggling city, but a Mecca legacy for the folks who gave you “pizza pizza” and the Olympia group.

After that?… I got nothin’

Nothin’ but positive… that is.

For two decades we’ve heard about the possibilities of replacing the ill-advised Joe Louis Arena with a brand spanking new facility that would be the heart and soul of Downtown Detroit. JLA may only be about 35 years old but it seems like its 100.

Mike Ilitch’s vision for his “FoxTown” community always had more than a hockey rink in mind. It was about dwellings and restaurants and parks, etc. It was about jobs and opportunity for those that have chosen to remain in Detroit when countless thousands have left the boundaries.

Saturday, September 27, Detroit officially becomes the 12th largest television market in the nation. It drops yet another notch with population creeping ever downward.

Phoenix, Arizona will now be the 11th largest.

Detroit is also dangerously close to falling behind Tampa and Seattle. Most likely WILL in the next census.

Many cite the lack of great schools, grocery stores and quality homes and apartments as a reason for moving out. Others simply were displaced during this last six years of horrifying economic instability.

Some… just disappeared off the face of the planet it seems.

A surreal moment came to mind on Thursday watching the ground breaking for the new “District Detroit.”

Local 4 WDIV’s Kevin Dietz has been running a series about the homeless downtown. He even went “undercover” as a homeless person for better access.

In the story, he claims there are “35,000 men and women” homeless in the city proper.

I would go on a limb and say there are MUCH more than that number. But, the numbers don’t matter. If even ONE person is homeless… it’s too many.

In the shadow of that, came this Las Vegas-style ground breaking ceremony featuring Chris Ilitch, Gov. Rick Snyder, Mayor Mike Duggan and others. Former Mayor Dave Bing was among the others in the seated crowd.

The idea of spending upwards of $700-million (and I believe the final price tag will be closer to a BILLION dollars) seems goofy when so many other things in Detroit could use that kind of financial attention.

But, if we’ve learned anything it’s that you take what you can get.

Duggan made the statement that “51-percent of the jobs will go to Detroiters.”

Believe me, there will be plenty of people who will hold the mayor and Ilitch to that mandate.

Duggan also said that this was the day he and the city council were finally about to “take local government back.”

Kevyn Orr’s time as the emergency financial manager is up and with the climb out of bankruptcy nearly over, Duggan will be able to control the political landscape in the Southeast Lower.

The largest United States city to declare bankruptcy is on the verge of just being a city again.

Not a bankrupt one.

It may also be an un-official END to the Kwame Kilpatrick disaster.

So much to get past ever before the Detroit Red Wings drop a puck in the new arena.

Kind of fitting also that the ground breaking hoopla took place on the day after the Tigers clinched another playoff spot.

When Ilitch “won” the Tigers, outbidding Lansing businessman Joel Ferguson, back in 1992 he was seen as somewhat of a savior savant. Tom Monaghan had only owned the team for nine years having purchased it from longtime Tigers’ czar John Fetzer.

Immediately, Ilitch started selling his plans for replacing Tiger Stadium with a new and improved ballpark which came to fruition eight years later.

Despite all the haggling and negativity over the loss of the iconic yard at Michigan and Trumbell, most people will admit it worked out for the best.

I will acknowledge Adam Milliken and his group of loyalists that have preserved the old site as homage to Detroit’s past.

Good for them.

Comerica Park is awesome 14 years later and I’m not afraid to say it. And I LOVED Tiger Stadium but to this day have to convince Adam and his peeps that the grand old lady had to go.

At this point, Adam will I.M. me on facebook railing me for my comments. Ha! That’s ok. I dig his passion.

The new hockey rink is a different story.

When I first came to Michigan back in 1977, my first order of business (outside of going to college at MSU) was to see the Olympia.

Growing up in Chicago as a Blackhawks fan, all I saw was the Olympia on TV. It looked totally cool and I wanted to see the thing.

Hockey season was just underway and I gathered up a few newly found Spartan friends and we drove down Grand River for a Wings game against Toronto. Seats were cheap and I was surprised to find out… available.

I was hooked on the place.

When it went bye-bye in 1979, it was a sad day.

December 15th to be exact was the final hockey game in “The Old Red Barn.” A month and a half later, the new Joe Louis Arena was the site of the 1980 NHL All-Star Game.

Having been built right on the Detroit River limited JLA from having a party atmosphere on the grounds.

It would be a place that you would drive too, go watch the game and then drive home. Since most of the Wings fan base was suburbanites, they didn’t have much of an interest in hanging out downtown into the wee hours of the morning.

Oh sure, there were some neighborhood bars like Cobo Joe’s and The Anchor, but not much else to do.

And then there was the matter of the press box.

Oh, the damn press box!

The story goes that they simply forgot to build one and at the eleventh hour, ripped out a few back rows of seats to create a spot for newspaper, TV and radio. I’ve spent decades maneuvering through the crowd just to get to the press entrance.

It sucks. Always has.

Assumption time. When the NEW arena is finished I ASSUME it will have a real live working press box.

Granted, Ilitch didn’t build Joe Louis Arena.

Funny how so many people THINK that Ilitch built JLA. Nope, it was former owner Bruce Norris that got the sweetheart deal from the city in order to avoid losing the Wings to Pontiac. It was “this close” that Norris had his hockey club joining the Lions near the Silverdome.

Next to the river was not a good idea; even with its proximity to Cobo.

In 1996, I was at Fox 2 TV and we were covering the Wings’ playoff run versus Colorado. This is when the Avalanche was still at the old McNichols Arena and not the amazing Pepsi Center.

I ran into Mike Ilitch, Jr. who was fascinated by what he saw.

“We need this!” he screamed.

McNichols had a ton of land around the arena. It was May so it was warm in Denver and people were milling about HOURS before the playoff game.

There were vendors and bands playing. There was a guy walking on stilts. Kids were getting their faces painted. Barbeques were set up and the sweet smell of burgers, chicken and ribs wafted through the area.

“Just look at this,” Ilitch, Jr. said with wonder. “Man, I tell you that this is going to happen someday in Detroit.”

He went on to rail on Joe Louis Arena for its lack of “that.” He extolled the virtues of having an area big enough to duplicate what Denver was doing for its fans. Junior had more passion for a new stadium than he had for that disastrous “Lost in Space” movie he produced.

Ouch!

18 years after that day in Colorado, a shovel went into some ceremonial dirt.

Mike’s brother was the one to lead the parade.

Must admit, I was very impressed with Chris Ilitch on ground breaking day. His mother and father? No where to be found. His other siblings? No shows; at least as far as I could tell. Too bad health situations played a part in that.

Chris stood at the podium and hosted the event.

There was a color guard, national anthem, gospel singers and speeches from Snyder, Duggan and Council President Pro-Tempore George Cushingberry, Jr. All of this took place on a funky looking set-up themed at the Red Wings.

After all, the Wings ARE still the centerpiece of the project.

It’s obvious that Mike Ilitch’s health has kept him away from his teams for a while now. It’s rare to see Mike or wife Marian at anything. Almost everyone in Detroit has no clue how they are actually doing health wise.

Big mystery; to be honest.

Chris however, was beaming.

He is the face of Olympia Sports and Entertainment now. This project is HIS baby. It may be his dad’s ultimate legacy to Detroit but, Chris is the captain of the ship.

On our Parker and The Man radio show, we made a case that Tiger trades, like the Prince Fielder deal to Texas, wasn’t so much about baseball as it was about “District Detroit.”

That deal for Fielder plus other moves like the Doug Fister trade to Washington, dumping players such as Joaquin Benoit, Jose Veras, Omar Infante, Jhonny Peralta, Brayan Pena and others were done for the project.

I called them, “hockey rink deals.”

Ilitch’s investment of more than $400 million wasn’t going to fall from the sky. No matter how much “public money” is involved, the bulk of the fiscal responsibility would fall on the Ilitch clan.

It wasn’t that the patriarch was getting out of the baseball business but just making sure he had enough funds to finish buying the land and get things going.

NOT signing Max Scherzer to a long term deal was part of that.

Oh sure, Miguel Cabrera and Justin Verlander had secured extensive contracts that take their time in Detroit to around 2020. Anibal Sanchez had also received a nice chunk of change.

To me, it seemed like those guys got in under the gun; almost like a game of musical chairs. They got a seat just as the music stopped.

Scherzer, Fister and Fielder? Not so much.

Fielder, in particular, had to go. The Tigers got lucky that it worked out this way. Ian Kinsler has been a welcome addition at second base and Prince was injured early in Texas and hasn’t been a factor. It seems like a steal but somewhere Mike Ilitch is snickering.

He probably had a Little Caesar’s “Hot and Ready” pepperoni for five bucks to celebrate.

Hell, maybe he even upgraded to the “Triple Meat Treat” for eight dollars.

Funny how a little PIZZA has helped rejuvenate a city.

Throw what Dan Gilbert is doing in the mix and there you go! Two Detroit natives are making it happen when no one else will… or can. Gilbert’s Quicken Loans moving downtown and his subsequent purchasing of buildings that Ilitch didn’t, has helped this turnaround immensely.

The REAL measure of the turnaround is whether or not folks will buy in.

It means, unless they move back downtown this is nothing more than entertainment. More diversion from the basic problems of an urban infrastructure.

In other words, to borrow the phrase, if they build it… will they come?

Well, they’re going to build it.

Saw the shovel go in the ground with my own two eyes.

The “District Detroit” along with the M-1 Rail project will create a driving nightmare in that Woodward Avenue corridor for the next few YEARS. The hockey rink isn’t expected to be finished until 2017.

Who cares?
If you can’t applaud what’s going on downtown, what can you applaud?

Will the Ilitch family profit for many moons? Of course they will. They’re in the business to make money. Get over it. It’s why ALL businesses exist. If YOU had the money, you’d do it too!

From the reaction I’ve had, most are pretty positive about what this does for Detroit and the perception that “The D” is dying.

Outsiders see the documentaries and read about bankruptcy and just figure we’re about ready to close up shop.

We know better.

It ain’t great by any stretch, but it’s a start.

Blasting Detroit is such an old concept; it’s a wonder people still do it. How droll and boring.

I’m not saying the Ilitch’s or the Gilbert’s deserve a coronation. They know they can’t do this type of thing in Arizona or California or New York.

Detroit was primed for a construction boom ala Cleveland and Baltimore.

This also is NOT Las Vegas.

The ground breaking ceremony had a Vegas-style “feel” to it. In fact, it was very similar to a ground breaking IN Vegas for their OWN new arena.

A state of the art facility is being built behind the New York, New York Hotel and Casino and kiddy corner to Mandalay Bay. It has a similar plan for shopping, retail, culinary and the like. There is even a park included in the price.

On March 16, 2011, the old Sahara Hotel closed. I was there at the time and said that the closing of the iconic Sahara was the absolute LOW point in Las Vegas. Other than Michigan, no state was punched economically like Nevada.

Specifically, Southern Nevada.

Detroit and Las Vegas had a lot in common in that sense.

But, right after that fateful March day in ’11, Vegas started the “bounce back.”

It took some time but housing prices came back, people found more jobs (even though Nevada unemployment remains among the highest in the USA) and construction took off.

On August 23rd the SLS Hotel and Casino opened. It was a renovated Sahara. The new Delano Hotel opened a few weeks later over at Mandalay. “The Linq” is a new entertainment district across from Caesars Palace. The “High Roller” is open for biz; it’s the world’s largest Ferris Wheel. Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall has been transformed into the boutique hotel, “The Cromwell.”

The old Stardust site, which was going to be the multi-billion dollar “Echelon” was standing dormant since 2011 but has been purchased by the Resorts World group and they are going to proceed with a phenomenal Vegas monstrosity.

And on, and on, and on.

What we witnessed here? Is a mini… THAT.

Detroit is NOT Las Vegas.

Nothing wrong with that. Detroit doesn’t want to be Vegas. No one is going to mistake our city for the one in the Mojave Desert.

Three casinos, and a fourth in Windsor, does not a Vegas make.

Say what you want, but I am excited to see what this sucker looks like when it’s all done. The artist rendering looks pretty cool but those are just pictures and can’t really do it justice. If you go by the excitement on Chris Ilitch’s face then it’s going to be pretty darn spectacular.

We could sure use some more spectacular around these parts.

Just like we can use some “corny” once in a while.

The glitzy ground breaking like I said, had a Vegas vibe. It was a bit campy and corny for sure. But my goodness, let’s have a little fun. I almost expected to see Mike Duggan walk to the dais with showgirls on his arm just like former Vegas mayor Oscar Goodman does to this day.

I don’t think Duggan would have added the two martinis that Goodman likes to showcase as well.

Ilitch deserves a couple of martinis. They should celebrate this dawn of a new day in Detroit and not just because the old, stinky Joe Louis Arena is now on the clock.

Its days are numbered.

JLA was named after arguably the greatest boxer of all time. Joe Louis is a symbol for this city; fist included. Like the “Brown Bomber,” the building put up a good fight. It will always be the place where simple hockey became… Hockeytown.

Never diss what the Red Wings did to lift the spirits of a championship-starved Michigan. It may not have had the political ramifications like the 1968 Tigers’ World Series or the euphoria of 1984, but it instilled pride back along with the Pistons title of 2004.

FOUR Stanley Cup championships in a period of just over a decade gave Detroit a measure of identity. Unlike other American metropolis’ we ARE defined by our sports champions.

God forbid the LIONS ever help out in that regard.

Barring a huge turnaround, the Wings won’t win another Cup at JLA.

Sometime in the next couple of years, someone like me is going to come to Michigan and want to see Joe Louis Arena before it’s demolished. They’ll want see where all those Stanley Cups were won. It may not bring the same emotion as seeing the Olympia for the first time, but it might come close.

Then, they will head over to the new arena as a fresh era is born. They will awe at what was built bringing vitality to a downtown yearning for life. They may even be there the night the Red Wings WIN another Cup.

Today a shovel went into some dirt. But… it so much more than that. Hope has been restored in Motown.

Corny? You bet. We need some corny around here.

I just pray they don’t forget the press box.