Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

The Goring of Detroit

Vulture capitalist’s next big venture

Tom Gores’s Detroit Pistons may deign to play Little Caesars Arena.
Tom Gores’s Detroit Pistons may deign to play Little Caesars Arena.

When David Copley sold the Union-Tribune to Tom Gores and his Beverly Hills–based Platinum Equity back in 2009, the vulture capitalist with Palestinian roots vowed that he was in the newspaper business for the long haul — all the while selling off a lucrative portfolio of U-T real estate that came with the deal. Platinum’s promise to stick around in San Diego lasted less than three years, as U-T circulation continued to plunge and news coverage collapsed, until Gores sold what remained of the newspaper in the fall of 2011 to La Jolla real estate developer Douglas Manchester.

Sponsored
Sponsored

The Republican kingpin frequently used the paper to settle political scores, ultimately unloading the operation last year to the Chicago-based company now known as tronc, which has continued to dismally shrink the paper. For his part, the bottom-fishing Gores easily moved on to his next high-profile venture, the Detroit Pistons, having snatched up the professional basketball team at the bargain price of $325 million six months before his U-T deal with Manchester was announced.

Akin to years-long declamations by the Chargers-owning Spanos family that they would never move their team from San Diego, Gores denied having any immediate interest in relocating the Pistons from the Palace, its aging venue in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills. “We all probably have thought about moving one day from our current houses,” Gores told the Detroit News in January of this year. “You still take care of that home and you respect it and it needs to be touched with all your emotions.” He added, “It’s always a tricky thing for us because this is our home and we need to adorn it. At the same time, we understand what’s going on in downtown cities and we’re looking at it very, very seriously.”

Now the billionaire has finally dropped the other shoe, cutting a deal with the Red Wings hockey club to share a new, tax-funded downtown Detroit sports arena. The arrangement resembles the way the Chargers may soon share a new Inglewood stadium with the L.A. Rams. Unlike the privately funded Rams deal, the Michigan project is being put together by the city’s redevelopment arm in hopes it will help revive the flagging city’s economic fortunes.

“Perhaps most surprisingly, the Pistons may not pay the Red Wings anything to play their 41 regular-season home games at Little Caesars Arena,” Crain’s Detroit Business reported last week. “In fact, instead of a traditional tenant lease payment, the Pistons could be the entity getting cash to play downtown.” Details have yet to be confirmed. The Field of Schemes blog reports that the total cost to taxpayers of the arena project is at least $334.5 million and climbing.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Syrian treat maker Hakmi Sweets makes Dubai chocolate bars

Look for the counter shop inside a Mediterranean grill in El Cajon
Tom Gores’s Detroit Pistons may deign to play Little Caesars Arena.
Tom Gores’s Detroit Pistons may deign to play Little Caesars Arena.

When David Copley sold the Union-Tribune to Tom Gores and his Beverly Hills–based Platinum Equity back in 2009, the vulture capitalist with Palestinian roots vowed that he was in the newspaper business for the long haul — all the while selling off a lucrative portfolio of U-T real estate that came with the deal. Platinum’s promise to stick around in San Diego lasted less than three years, as U-T circulation continued to plunge and news coverage collapsed, until Gores sold what remained of the newspaper in the fall of 2011 to La Jolla real estate developer Douglas Manchester.

Sponsored
Sponsored

The Republican kingpin frequently used the paper to settle political scores, ultimately unloading the operation last year to the Chicago-based company now known as tronc, which has continued to dismally shrink the paper. For his part, the bottom-fishing Gores easily moved on to his next high-profile venture, the Detroit Pistons, having snatched up the professional basketball team at the bargain price of $325 million six months before his U-T deal with Manchester was announced.

Akin to years-long declamations by the Chargers-owning Spanos family that they would never move their team from San Diego, Gores denied having any immediate interest in relocating the Pistons from the Palace, its aging venue in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills. “We all probably have thought about moving one day from our current houses,” Gores told the Detroit News in January of this year. “You still take care of that home and you respect it and it needs to be touched with all your emotions.” He added, “It’s always a tricky thing for us because this is our home and we need to adorn it. At the same time, we understand what’s going on in downtown cities and we’re looking at it very, very seriously.”

Now the billionaire has finally dropped the other shoe, cutting a deal with the Red Wings hockey club to share a new, tax-funded downtown Detroit sports arena. The arrangement resembles the way the Chargers may soon share a new Inglewood stadium with the L.A. Rams. Unlike the privately funded Rams deal, the Michigan project is being put together by the city’s redevelopment arm in hopes it will help revive the flagging city’s economic fortunes.

“Perhaps most surprisingly, the Pistons may not pay the Red Wings anything to play their 41 regular-season home games at Little Caesars Arena,” Crain’s Detroit Business reported last week. “In fact, instead of a traditional tenant lease payment, the Pistons could be the entity getting cash to play downtown.” Details have yet to be confirmed. The Field of Schemes blog reports that the total cost to taxpayers of the arena project is at least $334.5 million and climbing.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Trophy truck crushes four at Baja 1000

"Two other racers on quads died too,"
Next Article

Undocumented workers break for Trump in 2024

Illegals Vote for Felon
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader