Mike Illitch is one of the kings of the pizza industry. His tasteless, quickly made Little Caesar’s Pizza has made him a fortune and allowed him to purchase 2 sports franchises in Detroit, Michigan. First he purchased the Detroit Red Wings in 1982 for $8 million. The Wings are now worth over $300 million. Illitch purchased the Tigers from the other Michigan pizza mogul, Domino’s founder Tom Monaghan, in 1992. Now, with the Detroit Pistons up for sale, and the Red Wings needing a new building to play in, Illitch may have a chance to land a 2-for-1 deal, kinda like the old Little Caesar deals.
Illitch has been trying for years to get a new home for the Red Wings. He has been reluctant to put his own money into a new stadium, hoping that the City of Detroit would help finance it. He did finance 50% of Comerica Park, the home of the Detroit Tigers. Illitch can contend that the great success that the Red Wings have had has benefited the Detroit economy during the cold winter months. For a time, the Wings tickets were the hardest to get in Detroit, and they filled Greektown and the surrounding bars with fans during the season. A new arena would most assuredly generate new jobs, and help the downtown district of one of the poorer cities in the country.
The Detroit Pistons are one of the more lucrative franchises in the NBA because they are actually part of a conglomerate that is the Palace Sports and Entertainment. This group, which is ultimately owned by Karen Davidson, not only has control of the Pistons, but also the most played concert venue in the state, the DTE Energy Music Theatre. They also own several other smaller venues throughout the metro-Detroit area. It has been rumored that Davidson would prefer to sell PSE as a whole, and not the Pistons separately. This would give great leverage to Illitch in his quest to get a new arena built if he chose to purchase the entire package. He can then tell the city that he can bring the only Detroit team missing from the city back, or he can take the biggest winner out. This would most definitely put former Piston, and current mayor of Detroit, Dave Bing in a tough spot. It is already hard enough to get people to spend time in the city, and losing the Wings to the suburbs would be devastating. But gaining the Pistons would be huge.
No owner has ever really successfully, from a pure financial standpoint, done well owning 3 sports franchises. Wayne Huizenga probably had the most well known ownership of 3 teams. He owned the Dolphins, Panthers and Marlins back in the 90s. He also hemorrhaged money while owning the Marlins. He threw a ton of money into a team to win a World Series, and after they did that, he had a fire sale. Not just the players, but the team itself. Many believe that Illitch would not be as hasty as the former Blockbuster owner, and be in it for the long haul. It has been suggested that Illitch Holding groups could do what the New York Yankees did, and create a channel that is specific to its teams. Probably even more similar to the Big Ten Network, as it would feature 3 separate teams to have programming surround for 365 days a year. The advertising from such a deal would help create ridiculous amounts of money for the Illitch empire. He has already hired former Pistons PR guru, Tom Wilson, so the fit with the Pistons would be an easy transition if and when the keys are turned over.
The actual process of purchasing a sports franchise isn’t necessarily smooth and usually takes longer than originally anticipated, and other groups will probably throw their hat in the ring. However, Illitch does seem like a natural choice, as he has had great success with the Wings, and definitely helped over time to bring the Tigers back to respectability, and Comerica a place to visit. The majority of the sports fan base in Detroit would be very happy to have the Pizza eating entrepreneur own their basketball team. They just hope Papa John’s doesn’t throw his hat in the ring.
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