Detroit Pistons on the move

By Cody Rusan

 

The Detroit Pistons will say goodbye to the Palace of Auburn Hills at the conclusion of their season.

Detroit basketball has called the Palace home since 1988 and are now set to join the Detroit Red Wings in the Little Caesars Arena which is set to open next September.

Detroit mayor Mike Duggan recently told the Detroit Free Press, “This (Detroit) is the only city with all four teams in the downtown area. You can walk within 10 minutes to all of them.”

The move will put all of Detroit’s sports teams within 100 yards of one another. It will also create another $34.5 million in arena expenses for the Pistons locker room area, court and floor seating. The move will also induce an additional expense of up to $55 million to build the Pistons practice facility and offices.

It is still unknown how much the move will benefit local Windsor businesses who sell Pistons apparel and merchandise.

“It’s up to the apparel company itself if we receive any Pistons gear,” said Bob Reaume, owner of Bob Reaume Sports. “On court stuff (official team apparel) is always a problem. We usually only see gear from about six teams with a ton of Toronto Raptors gear.”

Adidas, current merchandise supplier of the NBA, will not be the league’s distributor next season. It is still unknown who will take over. The move should spike some company interest to supply Windsor with Pistons gear to cater to the cross-border fans, but it all comes down to the potential apparel company itself.

“We have yet to see anything, no updates, nothing,” said Reaume.

With the Pistons a lot closer to Windsor and their home games now accessible through Transit Windsor, will the Pistons attendance numbers grow? Will local Windsor businesses benefit? Only time will tell.