As reported Monday evening, Little Caesars Arena will be changing their red seats to black this year. The move has many fans scratching their heads and wondering “why bother?”
In the official press release from Little Caesars Arena, they go a little into the process itself and the estimated start time of the project. However, they don’t really at all go into the reasoning behind the move.
“We evaluated every aspect of arena operations during the inaugural year, and after numerous discussions with the Pistons and other stakeholders, we have made the decision to install black seats at Little Caesars Arena,” said Chris Granger, Group President, Sports & Entertainment, Ilitch Holdings, Inc.
“When the Pistons agreed to move to downtown Detroit and play their home games at Little Caesars Arena, many design features were either finalized or already in production. We very much value our partnership with the Pistons organization and have made this decision together. This change is also made with the support and input from industry-leading concert promoters and our television partners at Fox Sports Detroit. The transition to permanent black seats will take several months, but will have no impact on our guest’s event-day experience.”
The installation process is slated to begin in December and take place in chunks over multiple months during non-event days. See the full, official press release below.
Here is the full press release on @LCArena_Detroit installing black seats pic.twitter.com/YWKVbR7D0M
— FOX 2 Sports (@FOX2Sports) October 9, 2018
As seen at Monday night’s Detroit Pistons preseason game at home, the lower bowl seats already have black covers over the backs. This press release makes it sound like the decision was made mainly due to concerns from the Pistons, and not so much the Detroit Red Wings.
It’s no secret that the Pistons have attendance issues. It’s an issue that’s followed them to downtown Detroit from Auburn Hills. Additionally, even though the Red Wings sell out most home games, the telecasts show many empty seats in both the lower and upper bowls. The thought circulating is that the black seats will draw less attention to this fact by the players, and most likely fans watching on TV.
