The Pistons are headed back to Detroit. The team will announce in a Tuesday press conference that it will be moving to Little Caesars Arena as the team’s home stadium beginning in the 2017-18 season, according to The Detroit News.
Pistons will move to a new arena in downtown Detroit starting next season
The team will share an arena with the Detroit Red Wings and move out of the Palace of Auburn Hills
Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports
The official announcement will take place after 2:30 p.m. ET meeting of Detroit’s Downtown Development Authority board. The meeting is open to the public and will be located at Detroit Cass Tech High School, per The Detroit News.
The move back into Detroit city limits will end a 30-year stay at the Palace of Auburn Hills, which was located about 45 minutes north of downtown Detroit. Little Caesars Arena is being built as the Detroit Red Wings’ home arena, but the Pistons have made a deal with Olympia Entertainment, the company in charge of the stadium’s development, to join as well.
All major Detroit teams are now located in Detroit proper. The Pistons are planning to build a 60,000-square-foot practice facility in the same district as the stadium. However, a specific location has not been settled on yet. With Little Caesars Arena opening in less than a year, in time for the next NHL and NBA seasons, they will also need to build a locker room and optimize it for the Pistons.
The district where the stadium is located and the practice facility is planned is one of Detroit’s quickest developing areas. SB Nation wrote this when the move was initially reported as an option:
The vision for the development is a mixture of residential and commercial developments creating “50 blocks of thriving businesses, parks, restaurants, bars, and event destinations.” Investment in The District has already eclipsed more than a billion dollars, and downtown Detroit has seen several billion dollars of investment as it continues to bounce back from its decades-long economic woes.
The future of the Palace is up in the air. The stadium has been home to many famous moments, from the Bad Boys to the 2004 title. Of course, the Malice in the Palace might be its most infamous moment, and one the team will be happy moving on from.
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