Why Detroit Destroyed Its Own Basketball Palace

In 1988, William Davidson built a basketball arena in a suburb north of Detroit for $90 million, financed privately rather than with public bonds. The Palace of Auburn Hills opened on August 13, 1988. It held 22,076 for basketball and up to 23,000 for concerts. The architects at Rossetti put the luxury suites sixteen rows up from the floor instead of at the roof, and that decision was copied at nearly every arena built since. It ran for thirty years. Three Pistons championships, three Detroit Shock championships. The address was 6 Championship Drive, and the number went up with every title. It was one of only two NBA arenas that never sold its naming rights. The other was Madison Square Garden. The Pistons left for downtown Detroit in 2017. Bob Seger played the last event on September 23rd of that year. The building sold in 2019 for $22 million, about a quarter of what it cost to build. On July 11, 2020, at 8 a.m., crews brought down the 6,300-ton roof with explosives. The contractor reports 730 pounds; news coverage at the time said about 800. It fell in four to five seconds. The owners asked the public to watch from home because of the dust. Hundreds came and lined Lapeer Road anyway. #PalaceOfAuburnHills #Detroit #DetroitPistons #LostStadiums #FallenAndForgotten