Tis the season to tear down stadiums as Joe Louis Arena just needs a fierce south breeze off the river for that current erector set view to come down.
The second arena, one much too young to be put to rest, The Palace; a name I honestly thought was a joke when they first announced it. Not my money though. There must be some money in the property in tearing it down so soon but how valuable can property be where you have to utilize never-ending I-75 construction to get there? Again, not my money. Good timing at the arena's opening as the hoops team was at its peak (versus the bad timing of the current crappy team opening the current arena). Tickets were in high demand as my old man bought a partial season ticket package with a friend in the second year the arena was open and he was WAYYYYY up there. The product was good so you brought the binoculars. I saw a handful of concerts there; Seger two nights in a row and was not disappointed.
My lasting memory of the place though will be in 2004 when friends and I were at the Piston-Pacer game. We had seats where you could see the players run out of the tunnel; pretty cool. It was the year after their championship and was a very early season match up (meaning some of the players were on auto pilot). The home team that night looked like they still had the championship hangover as they played like shi* and looked disinterested. With about six minutes left and the team down 20+, we made the call to head for the exit rather than wait to see if Darko would make an appearance (only Piston fans will get that reference). We weren't the only ones heading out as others followed. So we make it to the car, turn the game on the radio and the announcers are in disbelief describing an uneducated player first laying down on the scorer's table crying about a foul, an uneducated/inebriated fan throwing a beer cup at said player (and nailed it from a good distance away) and then all shi* breaking loose between said fan and player before more fans and players got involved. Chairs were thrown and not too far from where we were sitting.
A bummer I didn't get to see mankind beating each other up (Idiocracy is getting close) but I would have left early had I did it all over again as the product before the brawl sucked.
Timmy Leaves
RIP JLA and Palace
Trail Head
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| HAD GOOD SEATS THAT NIGHT |
