Originally Posted by
Gistok
Unlike Bill Davidson, who did absolutely squat about what came after him... [[neither his wife or son had any real power over his empire while he was alive), the Ilitch's have been doing "estate planning" for quite some time [[with some tweaking of offsprings when the need arises).
You forget that Marion Ilitch is still around and kicking. And besides MotorCity casino [[which she runs on her own) and the Detroit Tigers [[which by baseball rules, he runs on his own)... the rest of the empire is a "dual monarchy" of sorts. They run it together and always have since they owned their first pizza place in Garden City.
Once Mike is gone, she may be the "Dowager Empress" for a few years, with some of the kids already running the family business [[son Chris already runs Little Caesar's, and son Atanis is involved in Olympia Entertainments). Their downtown empire isn't going to vanish once Mike is gone, and the likelihood of an Arena isn't likely to disappear or diminish either.
One other thing... it was the Ilitch children who encouraged their parents to move the Little Caesars HQ from the burbs to the Fox Theatre Building... and all the rest of the empire ended up nearby. It's just a matter of time [[with or without Mike) that an arena will follow suit. Ilitch Holdings hasn't been buying up acres and acres of land between MotorCity Casino, Masonic Temple and the Fox... just for the hell of it.