NHL Hall of Fame exhibit, rinks for visitors, Wings and Maple Leafs locker room replicas, souvenir shops and other attractions fill the "Fan Zone" outside Comerica Park during the Hockeytown Winter Festival through Tuesday. (Detroit Red Wings photo)
Think of this if you're at Comerica Park today or early this week, columnist Terry Foster suggests:
The fun everyone will have this weekend can be traced to one man with a dream: Mike Ilitch.
Hockey fans at Comerica Park this weekend.
(Twitter photo/Chris Zadorozny)
The Detroit News sportswriter gives a warm word embrace to the Red Wings owner for bringing Detroit a five-day event that is "the way Hockeytown is supposed to look."
All this, however, never would have happened if Red Wings owner Mike Ilitch and his wife Marian didn’t push for the NHL to include Detroit in the Winter Classic. NHL officials wanted everything to take place in Ann Arbor.
But the Ilitch family wanted Detroit to benefit from the NHL’s showcase.
“This definitely would not be happening if not for Mr. I,” Red Wings general manager Ken Holland said. “This is the compromise or solution. Mr. Ilitch wanted two weeks of energy in Detroit.”
The energy is definitely there. And you can thank Mike Ilitch.
He could have given in to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and taken the festivities to Ann Arbor. But Ilitch wanted to promote downtown Detroit. . . .
"Mr. and Mrs. Ilitch wanted to bring the pulse of the city to Winterfest,” Holland said.
Hockey games: Schedule and tickets
Fan zone: Information and hours
Instagram photo by Melissa Weckler
Friday eve photo by Jason Rosenberg via Instagram
