Detroit hopes for boost as teams go downtown
DETROIT — The Detroit Pistons are ready to move downtown — into what is already being billed as one of the most unique sports neighborhoods in the nation.
The Pistons formally announced plans Tuesday to move into Little Caesars Arena next season and share that new venue with the Detroit Red Wings, a relocation that would put all four of the city’s major sports teams within a few blocks of each other. The arena is being built in the same part of downtown where the Tigers and Lions host their games at Comerica Park and Ford Field, respectively.
“This is the only city now with all four teams in the downtown area,” Mayor Mike Duggan said. “You can walk within 10 minutes to all of them. You can go around the country, and there are cities where all four teams are somewhere in the border of their city. In Denver, they’ve got basketball and hockey and baseball downtown, and the Broncos play a mile outside.”
Duggan said after moving downtown, the Pistons will have their headquarters and a practice facility in the city by 2018.
Duggan called the agreement for the Pistons to move “preliminary” and said final agreements would likely be approved early next year by Detroit’s Downtown Development Authority, the Michigan Strategic Fund and the Detroit City Council. The agreement calls for a contribution of $34.5 million from the DDA to cover modifications to the new arena to accommodate an NBA team.
Duggan said by law, those funds can only be used for infrastructure and economic development.
“These funds have to be spent on economic development purposes in this region, and we couldn’t think of anything more important than bringing the Pistons back home,” he said.
Michael LaFaive of the Michigan-based Mackinac Center for Public Policy was critical of the plan, saying taxpayers shouldn’t be put in a position to back business ventures of private entrepreneurs.
“Let entrepreneurs risk their own resources and flourish or flounder on their own accord,” he said in an e-mail.
The Red Wings are in their final season at Joe Louis Arena before the NHL team moves to Little Caesars Arena. The Pistons have played at The Palace of Auburn Hills since 1988 and were at the Pontiac Silverdome for a decade before that.
