Jack Lessenberry, who in the past has scrutinized how the Mike Ilitch Empire deals with the City of Detroit, takes on the deal between Ilitch and the city over the new arena.
What’s most stunning to me is the way Detroit has rolled over, again and again, to let Mike Ilitch and his family use the city as their personal property and doormat.
In fact, we seem to have a habit of sticking it to the poor to enrich the Ilitches and destroy our heritage.
Last month, we learned what the city’s share will be in terms of a cut from the ticket revenue, food and drink and souvenir sales, parking, etc. etc. Currently, the city gets an estimated $7 million a year from these things at Joe Louis Arena.
That’s the stadium we built for the hockey team in 1979. As far as I know, it works just fine. But the 84-year-old Ilitch wants a new and more expensive playpen now.
And so our city politicians, the ones who can’t find money to hire more cops, and our state government, the ones who can’t come up with the money to fix the roads, promptly rushed to subsidize “Mr. I.”
The city cleared the way for Ilitch to develop on the land, and we’re paying for nearly three-fifths of the building cost. Anyway — so what will the city get out of this new arena? With the Joe, there are different formulas for splitting each kind of revenue. But now they’re making it much simpler for us. With the new arena, Detroit gets nothing.
