Features
Turn Out The Lights In Detroit
The venerable Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, home of the NHL’s Red Wings, will go dark after the team’s final game until the first swing of the wrecking ball, according to a proposed lease now before the city council.
Photo: AP Photo / Paul Sancya, File
The city, which owns “The Joe,” would be prohibited from staging any ticketed events there after that final buzzer sounds and the Red Wings move into new digs as early as 2016.
The lease is part of a package of agreements before the council, according to the Detroit Free Press.
It’s hoped they tie up several issues for the Joe, including a plan for Michigan to pay upfront costs for the demolition and a $5.2 million payment for any unpaid monies owed Detroit by the team under its previous lease.
The original lease with Olympia Entertainment, the owner of the Red Wings, on Joe Louis Arena expired in 2010, but a new one, including five one-year extension options, is in place but will end in June 2015.
Olympia Entertainment is owned by Detroit’s powerful Ilitch family, which will be able to start keeping all revenue from the new arena, despite financing less than half of it.