It's time the Pistons brought the old Palace upper-deck tarp used for those sparse Detroit Shock basketball crowds out of mothballs. They limited the seating during those WNBA games to avoid the visual embarrassment of vast sections of seats during home games occupied only by fidgety crickets.

The attendance Wednesday night was so meager, the handful of people in the upper deck no doubt heard Pistons coach Lawrence Frank scream "pistol" for a specific offensive set so clearly that their first impulse was probably to hit the deck out of fear.

How much longer can this franchise keep fooling itself into believing that it can independently exist 30 miles away from this sports community's epicenter -- downtown Detroit?

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They announced the attendance at 10,517. Nice try, Pistons. Maybe 3,000 bothered showing up. They're the only team in the NBA this season that's filling less than 60% of its arena. Their overall average attendance is the second lowest in the league.

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Why would playing downtown make any difference?

It's about habit. It's about familiarity. The market the Pistons court is now more comfortable spending their time and disposable entertainment dollar downtown than they were 20 years ago -- even if Auburn Hills is a closer destination.
And it also can't be forgotten that it's no longer economically viable in Detroit for four professional sports teams to thrive in four separate facilities. The corporate support simply isn't there.


http://www.freep.com/article/20121129/COL08/311290210/Drew-Sharp-Too-few-see-Pistons-win-time-to-move-downtown