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January 26, 2010
Detroit News: Joe Louis needs more women's restrooms, let's build a new arena
With the owners of the Detroit Red Wings having chosen to opt out of their lease at Joe Louis Arena this July, it's about time for the drumbeat of new-arena articles to begin. And indeed, they're in full swing: Last week it was speculation that the Wings could move in with the Pistons in Auburn Hills short-term, then work on building a new downtown arena together. Today, it's a report — like the earlier one, also from the Detroit News — that surveys the state of Joe Louis Arena and finds it to be "beyond repair."
The exact list of charges: The concrete steps need to be fixed, there are inadequate restrooms, seats are too cramped, and parking is inadequate. The Wings, report the News, "say it would cost them $10 million in renovations to remain at The Joe." Wait a minute — $10 million? Shouldn't that headline actually read: "As lease winds down, Joe Louis Arena could be repaired for a fraction of what a new arena would cost"?
that headline would make too much sense...
Posted by paul w. on January 26, 2010 02:24 PM
I love how it's "beyond repair" and then talk about all the things that need to be repaired.
I mean, the upper deck is too steep, and a new arena (with luxury boxes below the upper deck) would fix this? And I hope Lawrence Westerfield of Detroit isn't holding his breath for rocking seats at any new arena, except for maybe in the luxury boxes.
Posted by Brian on January 26, 2010 02:37 PM
Until the Auto sector meltdown, the Red Wings were among the league's best supported and highest revenue clubs. Detroit is an economic wasteland at present... let's hope that changes, but I think we can all agree that a new downtown arena (anyone working on that proposal actually BEEN to downtown Detroit?) won't fix Detroit's economy.
I've been waiting for the Wings to demand a new arena for some time. The JLA was built just before the migration from sports facilities featuring large capacities for "ordinary fans" to the new model: modest capacities & high revenue club seats and luxury boxes. The JLA doesn't have these accoutrements, though at roughly 20k seats, it is bigger than most of the newer buildings.
While there is some general "public benefit" from having new facilities (be they art galleries or hockey rinks), the proof is always in the pudding. If it was an economic necessity that a new arena be built, and if the revenues a new arena could drive were truly self sustaining, developers and team owners would be falling all over themselves to build them - even absent subsidies.
Posted by John Bladen on January 26, 2010 03:57 PM
Just to clarify, Detroit was actually at the beginning of the large capacity-arenas. The St. Louis Arena was the only arena around 20,000 at the time JLA opened, and there were only 5 other arenas that were even above 17,000 (NYR, Was, Mon, Phi, Chi), with none of those seating more than 18,200.
Of the arenas that came online from '82 to '96 however, 9 of 14 had over 19,000 seats, and two more (Buffalo and Vancouver) were close (SJ, Anaheim, and Boston were the other exceptions). Of the 13 that have opened since '97, only Florida's place (opened in '98) has eclipsed that figure.
Posted by Brian on January 26, 2010 04:40 PM
Do we ever fix and/or repair anything in this country or do we simply build?
I remember a line a county politician told me: nobody ever got the face on the front page of the newspaper for repairing a bridge.
Posted by bevo on January 27, 2010 07:13 PM
So $10 million in repairs to fix the restrooms has resulted in the JLA being deemed beyond repair? WTF?
Posted by nyrmetros on January 28, 2010 10:20 AM