The Palace was not centrally located to the region as a whole, but it was rather well-located in terms of (cheap land) which was close enough to large amounts of people with disposable income. Upper middle class (Rochester, Oakland Township), plus Troy and northern Macomb County, etc. All of the suites were sold to the plethora of Oakland County automotive suppliers. The Palace, combined with Pine Knob concert season, gave us phenomenal season sales. Even during Piston down years.Editorcj wrote: ↑Mon Jul 13, 2020 4:01 pmThe airport is where it's at and the only competition is Toledo and Flint. The Palace was easily accessible to maybe 10% of the metro Detroit population and had the newer LCA, centrally located, competing for shows, events and paying spectators. Sadly looks like LCA will be shuttered for a while.
Tom Gores managed to lose 75% of the season and corporate sales in about 3 years. It was his team that thought it was smarter than everyone else. Tom Wilson knows how to make money running that arena. Tom Gores knows how to make lots of money destroying things piece by piece.
If Mrs. D held on to the arena, or if Illitch had bought it as was originally expected, I’m fairly certain the Palace would still be doing well. In Illitch’s plan, the Pistons would gave gone downtown, but concerts would still be at the Palace today. As long as TW could run that place, it could make good money. Tom Gores just chose to make money a different way.