That's a great point. The Joe has great character and a great atmosphere. I hope the new arena isn't so big it takes away from the game.
Printable View
After having attended a game at the Joe, finally, I'm really pissed they're leaving that place. It's awesome.
what makes The Joe awesome? Is it the Mayan steps of doom? or the two toilets resevred for women? ah, maybe it's the breathtaking views of the water? er ah, I got it, the parking deck rocks, right?
What makes the Joe great is the atmosphere and great crowds. Yes, the building is HORRIBLY outdated as far as concessions, bathroom capacity, and modern amenities, yet it is my favorite Detroit sports stadium to go to see a game. Comerica is nice, but your too far away from the action. Same goes for Ford Field. Beautiful facility, but it's so big I feel like I'm watching a game from 2 miles away. The Palace is kinda the same way as well. I just hope they can somehow keep the same sort of atmosphere at a new arena.
My thinking was that if your going to build near Woodward, you might just as well build it right on Woodward.
I don't say that the Joe is the ideal hockey environment either. There is not a great deal of intimacy there either, but probably more than the Palace.
http://www.newolympia.blogspot.com
What makes Joe Louis a good place to see a game, and certainly made Olympia, and Tiger Stadium for that matter, a great one, is/was your closeness to the game itself. This is something the designers of new arenas and stadiums seem to have largely left out of the equation. You need a steep rake of the stands, and perhaps some decking that come out OVER the lower deck, to get fans right on top of the action. In arenas a low roof, like the Joe, helps too, because it holds in the noise of the fans and ups the intensity naturally, in response to the game itself instead of needing so much loud, obnoxious, distracting music to amp up the atmosphere.
A place like Comerica drives me nuts. Yeah, it has nice food and bathrooms, and a zippy ferris wheel for the kiddies, but that's all a sideshow. What I'm there to do is see the damn game and from some of the seats in that ballpark, particularly in the upper deck which is stupidly built behind almost all of the lower deck seats, I may as well be sitting in Windsor.
Chicago Stadium was crazy loud because the seats overhung each other, and this proposed arena would be really loud too. The Joe does have steep stands, which helps. The Joe also doesn't have 3 suite levels separating the seating levels, which would make an arena too spread out and not very loud.
General question, which arena gets louder, the Palace or Joe Louis? I would guess Joe Louis but I haven't been to a Pistons game since I was 14.
Schulzte,
How did you do that, by the way? Which program? I'd love to be able to do a render like that with Old City Hall where One Kennedy Square is. It's so hard to fathom what Campus Martius would look like if Miriani hadn't destroyed such a historic landmark.
I just used the free version of Google SketchUp. Then you can take those models and import them into Google Earth. You could make any building you want and see what it would look like where ever you wanted. For example, I sat my proposed arena in the parking lot of the Palace to compare the size of each building. Five years ago amateurs like me couldn't do anything like this [[or afford to). Gotta love Google for that.
http://www.newolympia.blogspot.com
Maybe I missed it but what will be the future of the Joe Lewis Arena once the Red Wings have flown out of their nest? Will it stand vacant for 20 years to come and by then it will be reduced to rubble for a paking lot?
Will it become a full fledged consert arena?
Illich will be gone by then [[physically speaking.)
Fun fact I never knew is that he was presented the key to the city by Kwame Kilpatrick. That key was also given to a certain... Saddam Hussein.
Regarding what would happen with the Joe. I think that they should do a study on whether or not it would be economically viable if they used the current structure as an expansion of Cobo. It is my dream that they would tear down all that schitt and build a new, modern hall expansion on Cobo. An expansion of Cobo in this direction would make the convention center more viable as well as add to the livelihood to that side of town. It might make a better connection between the Riverfront condos and downtown as well.
If they are gonna build a new home for the Wings, I hope it looks as nice as Shulztes vision.. That Google program is pretty neat, Have to figure that out.
Was anything mentioned on this thread about the Wings playing at the Palace for two seasons and possibly the Pistons sharing a new arena with them downtown?
I just can not imagine a scenario by which the Pistons leave the Palace. It is too nice, and been upgraded too many times to leave now. They have made significant expansions of the building twice, and has been well maintained.
I think the Wings will build a new building without the Pistons. They have to. Part of the Red Wings' brand equity is that they are a downtown Detroit team, and if they move to the Palace for anything more than a year, they lose some of that brand.
What I think will happen is that Mr. Ilitch will buy some stake in PS&E in order to have a hand in what shows get booked where. Detroit can support two arenas, but they need to be managed and booked by the same company, so touring acts don't play one arena off another and both Olympia and PS&E lose out. They had a similar situation in New Jersey and both arenas were losing money. They teamed management of the two facilities up and now one entity handles touring show bookings. I think some like that will happen in Detroit, though I'm not sure what it will look like.
http://www.newolympia.blogspot.com
The problem with that though is the financing for a project of that nature may not be available having just the Red Wings building a lone arena and not a partnership with the Pistons. If I remember correctly, Detroit, Phoenix, and one or two other cities in the United States are the only cities to have a separate arena for each of the four professional sports teams. I think it would most likely be a easier deal to workout with creditors and the city if it were a dual purpose arena.
And I do agree with you that leaving a great facility like the Palace which has been kept up to date and renovated over the years is a bit perplexing to understand. But Palace Sports stated themselves that they want a replacement to the Palace by 2020, so they are exploring their options.