Detroit 2020 = New Wings’ Arena?

Joe Louis Arena has been home to the Detroit Red Wings since 1979.  Not only has the Joe been the home of the Wings but it has hosted the 1980 NHL All-Star Game, three Frozen Fours, Detroit Pistons, Shock, and Drive games, the 1980 Republican National Convention, WWE/WWF wrestling, concerts, college hockey and basketball, and thousands of other hockey games (one of which I even had the honor of playing in).  Joe Louis Arena is still a great place to go see a hockey game but more for the history than any other reason, and other then hockey there are not many other events that chose to go there.  The Joe is getting old and is not nearly has fan friendly as other NHL arenas.

There has been talk around Detroit for the last five years or so about what the Red Wings should do with the Joe.  They turned down a 30 year contract renewal earlier this year, instead looking to sign a shorter agreement.  And who can balm them, no one wants to play in a 60 year old arena.  The next questions that arise are; when do the Red Wings need a new arena?  Where is it going to be?  And who is going to pay for it?  The answer to question one in my opinion is that the Wings have about 10 more years in the Joe.  By that point it will be 40 years old and most likely be the oldest arena in the league.  As for where to put the new arena there are lots of options, but I think Mr. Ilitch will keep them in the city limits, which is 100% the right thing to do.  Then just pick any abandoned building, and trust me there are lots of them, tear it down and start building.  I personally would like to see it built over where Tiger Stadium once stood.  The last question is probably the biggest when any team gets a new arena and this is where my idea comes in.

Since right now there is no why that the City of Detroit or State of Michigan could justify spending any tax money on a new arena, in case you have not heard there is a little depression going on in the state right now, and we can’t exactly expect Mr. Ilitch to build the whole thing himself.  So here is the solution, bring the Olympic games to Detroit.  The idea of an Olympics in Detroit has been floated around for a few years, but with never any serious talk that I know of.  Detroit should bid for either the 2020 summer games or the 2022 winter games.  I think that a summer games would work best in Detroit.  Now hosting an Olympics would cost lots of money, but it would help Detroit in the long run.  It would allow the city to rebuild a lot of areas that have been run down and provide the city with a number of state of the art facilities.  Second, an Olympic games in Detroit would give the whole world a brand new view of the city and show the world that Detroit is back and open for business.  It would be two weeks of free advertisement of the city for both tourism and business.  Paying for an Olympics would be expensive but the U.S. government should help pay for some of it.  Another idea would be to co-host the games with Windsor.  This would create the first ever Olympics to be jointly held by two countries.  How can the IOC say no to that?  This would also let the bill be split between the two cities, the State of Michigan, Providence of Ontario, and the federal governments in the United States and Canada.      .

Now getting back to that new rink for the Wings.  If Detroit gets the 2020 summer games, they could build the arena and use it for gymnastics, volleyball, or basketball and then turn it over to the Wings.  If it’s the 2022 winter games they would obviously just build the arena for hockey.  I would love to see Detroit get a new hockey rink and I have always dreamed of Detroit hosting an Olympics.  At this point this is just a pipe dream of mine, but maybe just maybe it will happen.  Oh and don’t think that there would not be an extra added benefit if Detroit got an Olympics when Chicago could not, after all I always want to beat Chicago.