Sale of the Detroit Pistons stalls….again

And now for the second time, the sale of the Detroit Pistons has stalled out. First Mike Illitch, owner of the Detroit Tigers and Red Wings, failed to close a deal to purchase the Pistons and now businessman Tom Gores seems to have stalled efforts to purchase the team. The problems seem to be about revenue, but in all reality this is a complicated deal that not only includes the Pistons, their home arena, but also two nearby outdoor music venues.

The real issues here are of course money. The Pistons are a mess, and are having trouble drawing in fans. They currently rank 18th among the 30 NBA teams and are averaging just over 16 thousand fans per home game. This is a team that needs to be rebuilt from the ground up, and that cannot happen until a new owner is in place. It seems all of their issues have severely hurt the bottom line.

On top of that it seems very likely that the revenue generated by the Palace of Auburn Hills (The Pistons home) has been severely hurt as well. The Pistons are the main tenant of that building and their failure to draw is depressing what the Palace is actually worth. Since this facility also hosts other events it seems likely that the state of the Michigan economy is depressing that value further. We can likely come to the same conclusion about the two outdoor music venues that are apart of this deal.

These issues with the latest buyer may reopen the door for Mike Illitch who would like to purchase the team and then leverage the city of Detroit into building a new downtown arena for both the Pistons and the Red Wings. Of course it could also open up the door to someone wanting to buy the team and relocate it out of Michigan. Right now it is hard to say which, but this is certainly not good for the Pistons or their fans.