Tiger Geist

Here’s the good news about a possible deal with Mike Ilitch purchasing the Pistons.

First, a possible new dual-purpose stadium near Fox Town, Comerica Park, and Ford Field.  The Pistons move back downtown; the Red Wings are rescued from Joe Louis Arena.  What does this give us?

365 Days / years.  10 Football home games (8 regular season, 2 pre-season, god help us for the playoffs).  Possible Big 10 championship game in the future.  Bowl Game….

Baseball?  81 games.  Basketball?  41 games plus playoffs.  Hockey?  41 games plus playoffs.

Worst case, you have 174 nights of sports games.  174 nights of fans heading downtown to the same area.

Speaking of area, ever been to Philly?  All the teams sports stadiums are next to each other.  Public transportation?  Check.  Everything next to each other.  Detroit could mimic the Broad Street Sports Complex.  Minus the public transportation of course, because that will NEVER happen in Detroit.

What’s a big draw?  The Red Wings.  So why not sign a deal with Ford Field for a few games?  Build a new stadium downtown, and get a deal with the Lions.  Chicago coming to town for a big game in January?  Play it at Ford Field in front of 60,000 fans.  Why not?  Be flexible.

Speaking of the new dual-purpose stadium, the Ilitch’s wouldn’t have to rush it.  The Red Wings could easily upgrade to the Palace for 2 – 5 years as the new stadium is sorted out.  Fans win.  Pistons are unaffected.

Second, it guarantees the Pistons will be a local team with solid ownership.  This would be a great thing, but again I’m not convinced the Pistons would move with any new owner.  And while Mike Ilitch knows how to build a hockey winner, the jury is still out on his baseball skills.

How does this affect the Tigers?  It doesn’t.  All good businesses are operated separately.  The Tiger’s payroll shouldn’t be affected by how the Motor City Casino is doing.  Of course, this isn’t always the case, which I’ll discuss in “The Bad”.

Is there a big win with a possible Detroit sports television network?  I’m undecided.  There are a few things that, as a current non-resident to the state, that I find to be true:  1) Fox Sports Detroit overpaid for the rights to the Tigers, and 2) Detroit and the state of Michigan is a football hotbed;  A successful Lions team could overshadow the rest of the major sports.

#1 is a gigantic revenue source for the Tigers; can it be replicated with a local network?  I’m not sure.  Outside of Michigan, you have Chicago and Cleveland, both of which have baseball and basketball teams.

#2 has certain factors:  NFL controls its own contracts, and the Big 10 network controls the University of Michigan and Michigan State.

With those noted exceptions, the YES network is a huge money maker for the Yankees, and the Atlanta Braves have been on the forefront of TV and the related money revenue for years.  I’ll give Ilitch the benefit of the doubt that owning three local professional sports teams could be a financial windfall for TV revenue.  And I’ll be honest that the Lions may suck until I die, which makes the other three pro sports teams better draws.