Detroit Releases Design Plans for an Arena

[Badabing]

Interested read about how the financing seems to be structured heavily in the Wings' favour.

If you're searching for something particularly craven in the complicated financing structure—that is, something other than the careless use of public money itself—look to where, exactly, the tax capture comes from. In December 2012, the Michigan legislature restored Detroit's ability to levy school-tax funds from the downtown district for economic development purposes. If that $12.8 million annual gift weren't going to the Illitch empire, it would go to the state's School Aid Fund.

But it is diminishing the state's School Aid Fund by diverting the taxes for "economic development" purposes. Something, somewhere, is taking a hit.

On February 4, City Council voted 6-3 to sell Olympia and the DDA, who will own the arena, 39 vacant parcels for $1. An analysis of city records by the Detroit Free Press found that "several private landowners succeeded in netting millions for themselves by selling similarly situated land in the arena's footprint to Ilitch-controlled corporations." Rather than sell the land at market rate, the city is giving them the rest the same way you sell your younger sibling your old car—$1, but just for the title transfer.

http://deadspin.com/detroit-scam-cit...-fo-1534228789

[Flamenspiel]

Originally Posted by kunkstyle

Character is great, but so are clear sightlines from anywhere in the 300s.

300s? Have you been to one of the new arenas? 300s are where seagulls and other birds fly outside of the arena. Any new arena is about about maximizing the 100 area and putting suites in 200s. It will certainly not be about adding good cheap seats.

I'd like see them put a winning team on the ice in 3-5 years. Phoenix and Toronto have brand new arenas, not sure how much it helped them.

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by Flamenspiel

300s? Have you been to one of the new arenas?

I've found the 300s in other arenas to be better than some of the dome's 200s.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Weird to see so much vacant space around a downtown area.

Have you seen Victoria Park?

[calgarywinning]

I am getting anxious to see our plans and that it stays in a similar area. This type of project would be great, even in the east village.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Flamenspiel

...I'd like see them put a winning team on the ice in 3-5 years. Phoenix and Toronto have brand new arenas, not sure how much it helped them.

Well, it sure as hell won't hurt them.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by Joborule

People in the suburbs of Detroit will come in, and you want to encourage them to stick around to provide to the economy. So chipping in to help revitalize this area and bring more life to downtown isn't a bad use of government money. They need to do stuff like this in order to recover.

Absolutely. There are counties within a 40 minute drive of downtown Detroit that are as affluent as anywhere in Calgary. Where do people think the Red Wing players live?

[Northendzone]

it is a nice looking drawing that is for sure.......now, all they need to go is go and secure all of the cash and it is done.....

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Flamenspiel

I'd like see them put a winning team on the ice in 3-5 years. Phoenix and Toronto have brand new arenas, not sure how much it helped them.

I wasn't aware that there was a link between quality of arena and intelligence of team management? Please explain this correlation of a new building making hockey operations all of a sudden operate smarter? Coyotes are a budget team and the Leafs have far too many cooks in the kitchen to ever build an elite contender both have nothing to do with the building. In the case of the Coyotes we are talking about a team that was initially playing in a basketball stadium that to convert for hockey left some sections only being able to see 2/3 of the ice.

[BurningSteel]

Originally Posted by Mike F

Looks like a great place to catch a hockey game and get murdered.

Or if your the Oilers a great place to get murdered while playing hovkey and then get murdered afterwards on the way to the hotel.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by fleury

Detroit is ghetto and that's the biggest problem in all of this. How do you change the culture of an area with just building an arena? The answer is you don't. You have to do a lot more to the surrounding area by encouraging newer-age investments. Motor City has been what their city has traditionally been known for, but it's outdated and is not enough to sustain a city. They have to encourage other industries to move in, whether favorable taxes or something else, but that city is an unsafe dump.

The arena plans look fantastic though.

Cleveland revitalized their downtown.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel...enewal-817906/

http://www.forbes.com/pictures/mhj45...leveland-ohio/

Cleveland began revitalizing its downtown in the mid-1990s. Today, more than $3.5 billion is currently invested in furthering the area's redevelopment. The Global Center for Health Innovation and a 750,000 square foot convention center will open this summer, totaling $465 million. Roughly $200 million in mixed-use development is under way around the relocation of the Cuyahoga County Administrative Headquarters at Euclid Ave. Recreational projects include a newly finished aquarium, an up-and-coming recreation center and a proposed skate park expected to break ground this year. The area's population nearly doubled in the two decades ending in 2010, according to Census data, and the area welcomed the biggest percentage increase in population growth of any district in the greater city as a whole. From fourth quarter 2011 through the fourth quarter of 2012, the number of housing units grew about 13%, according to the Downtown Cleveland Alliance. Another 715 units are expected to come online in 2013.

[Erick Estrada]

I think in the case of places like Detroit and Cleveland a city council has to at least try or they end up just sitting as spectators while the city dies a slow death. Detroit may also have to try and reinvent itself like Pittsburgh did turning itself from coal/steel town into a high tech city.

[East Coast Flame]

A city that is going through bankruptcy is giving about $280 million to a multi-billionaire......huh?

[Passe La Puck]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

Absolutely. There are counties within a 40 minute drive of downtown Detroit that are as affluent as anywhere in Calgary. Where do people think the Red Wing players live?

Sweden.

I remember seeing something a while ago about some gated community where most (all?) of the players lived.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by Passe La Puck

Sweden.

I remember seeing something a while ago about some gated community where most (all?) of the players lived.

American cities are different from Canadian cities. Calgary is actually one of the biggest municipalities in North America. If it was in the U.S., it would probably be 3-6 counties. Each county has its own government and budget. The City of Detroit (which is in Wayne County) is bankrupt. However, there are wealthy counties around it that aren't bankrupt, and are full of affluent people. To call them gated communities isn't accurate - they're typically much larger than what we call a subdivision.

For example, Oakland County, which is adjacent to Wayne County, has 1,202,362 people, and has one of the highest median family incomes in the U.S. ($84,783). Livingston County, population 180,967, is another Detroit commuter county. Median family income is $82,637. For context, median family income in the U.S. is $50,054. The state of Michigan ranks 15th in the U.S. in per capita income.

Detroit's fanbase is largely outside the city of Detroit. Those people aren't poor - in fact, they're quite well-off compared to most Americans.

[nik-]

I think Novi is the place where all the rich Red Wings live.

[Passe La Puck]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

American cities are different from Canadian cities. Calgary is actually one of the biggest municipalities in North America. If it was in the U.S., it would probably be 3-6 counties. Each county has its own government and budget. The City of Detroit (which is in Wayne County) is bankrupt. However, there are wealthy counties around it that aren't bankrupt, and are full of affluent people. To call them gated communities isn't accurate - they're typically much larger than what we call a subdivision.

For example, Oakland County, which is adjacent to Wayne County, has 1,202,362 people, and has one of the highest average family incomes in the U.S. ($84,783). Livingston County, population 180,967, is another Detroit commuter county. Median family income is $82,637. For context, median family income in the U.S. is $50,054. The state of Michigan ranks 15th in the U.S. in median income.

Detroit's fanbase is largely outside the city of Detroit. Those people aren't poor - in fact, they're quite well-off compared to most Americans.

I realize this, and I was mostly joking (hence the Sweden jab). But in the case of the Detroit players what I read was they were all neighbours literally on the same street and very much in a gated community. Gated communities are very common in the states and very much gated, with a fence road block as well as manned by guards 24/7.

Back on topic, it is pretty ridiculous that a bankrupt city is giving a billionaire millions of dollars. Unless they stick a tollbooth to collect "tax" dollars from the people living outside the area to chip in, I very much doubt it'll do much to help the people who live in the actual city/county in poverty.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by nik-

I think Novi is the place where all the rich Red Wings live.

And it's a small city of 55,000.

[Tyler]

Most of the Red Wings live in Bloomfield Hills, MI - one of the wealthiest areas in the entire country: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfield_Hills,_Michigan

[Northendzone]

perhaps the old tired public schoolsystem can be replaced with the mike ilitch school of concession management.......