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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781633198395 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Triumph Books |
| Publication date: | 04/18/2017 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 128 |
| File size: | 36 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
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The Joe
Memories from the Heart of Hockeytown
By The Detroit Free Press
Triumph Books LLC
Copyright © 2017 the Detroit Free PressAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-63319-839-5
CHAPTER 1
ONE LAST GOODBYE
Good-bye, old friend
Built quickly on the cheap, The Joe may never have been truly finished. But it was ours alone in hockeytown
By Jeff Seidel
It's like going to see an old friend, one last time.
Climb the steps to the entrance of Joe Louis Arena. Careful, those steps are steep and can leave you winded.
Through the metal detectors.
Down the concrete concourse — it might be ugly, but it's our ugly.
Take one last look around before the Red Wings move to Little Caesars Arena, a new home that will open in September 2017.
Duck through one of the stiff, red plastic curtains — and the memories and emotions come flooding back.
Suddenly, it is June 7, 1997, and Steve Yzerman, with his missing front tooth, lifts the Stanley Cup — the organization's first in 42 years. The Captain hands the Cup to owner Mike Ilitch as a song blares over the loudspeakers: "We are the champions, my friends. And we'll keep on fighting 'til the end."
Fighting?
It is March 26, 1997, and Darren McCarty is hammering Colorado's Claude Lemieux — revenge for Lemieux's hit from behind on Kris Draper a year earlier. Sticks and helmets are littered across the ice as Brendan Shanahan intercepts goaltender Patrick Roy. And then, the moment that still lives on YouTube — it can't get any better than this — as Wings goaltender Mike Vernon and Roy lock up, trading punches, knocking the bejesus out of each other. Roy leaves with blood streaming down his face.
Oh, it does get better, in a different way. It is June 13, 2002, and a chant rises through The Joe: "WE WANT THE CUP! WE WANT THE CUP! WE WANT THE CUP!" A horn goes off, and bodies are flying and hearts are soaring and confetti flitters down and the Wings have done it yet again. Yzerman hands the Cup to Scotty Bowman, from a future Hall of Famer to present Hall of Famer, and Bowman skates around the ice in his final moment as a head coach. They all sprawl across the ice for a picture, the Hockey Gods and Mr. I, who raises three fingers. The third Cup since 1997.
This gray, sterile box at 19 Steve Yzerman Drive has hosted it all, from Cups and rock shows to the 1980 Republican presidential nomination of Ronald Reagan to the circus — and by circus, we mean, the biggest, strangest, wackiest moment in figure skating history.
It is Jan. 6, 1994, and Nancy Kerrigan, moments after leaving the practice rink at neighboring Cobo Arena, is sobbing and screaming on the red hallway carpet after being attacked by a large man in a black leather coat and a black hat. She crunches over, holds her knee and cries out, "Why me? Why now?" Two nights later at The Joe, Tonya Harding easily wins the U.S. nationals as Kerrigan watches from a skybox. The conspiracy to injure Kerrigan quickly unravels, and Harding eventually pleads guilty to a felony charge.
This is where Al Sobotka, the Zamboni driver, twirled the octopus over his head and Karen Newman sang her heart out, just about every night like clockwork, and everybody joined along with Journey, screaming at the top of their lungs: "Just a city boy, born and raised in south Detroit."
This building is 15-million cubic feet of quirks — the springy boards, the thin, steep steps with the yellow paint, the worn, red plastic chairs, the stairwell that must have come from a giant Erector Set and the shots-on-goal scoreboard that looks like something from a middle-school gymnasium — a seriously old gym.
This building is like an old friend. The one you raised a whole bunch of hell with.
It might be weathered and wrinkled and have a bunch of scars, but it holds your secrets.
And now, it is time to say good-bye.
THE PONTIAC RED WINGS?
When the Wings moved to this arena in December 1979, it was known as "Joe Louis Warehouse" because it was so cold, vast and bleak.
There weren't enough bathrooms. Florescent lightbulbs hung on bare wires in the concourse. Merchandise was sold on card tables. And the team was in disarray under Bruce Norris' ownership.
Nobody seemed happy that the Wings were trading the charm of the Olympia for the coldness of this $34-million building wedged between two expressways, a parking structure, a series of ramps and bridges, and the Detroit River.
"It really wasn't renovated and ready to go," former Wing Paul Woods recalled. "It didn't make sense. You looked at the two buildings, and we were like, 'Why are we doing this?'"
The players didn't care for it. "We weren't a real happy bunch," said Woods, a Detroit left wing in 1977-84 and a Wings radio analyst since 1987.
Joe Louis Arena was named after the famous heavyweight boxer from Detroit, which seems fitting in retrospect, because this place was born out of political infighting, backdoor battles and a nasty sparring session between the city and the suburbs.
The Wings had played at Olympia Stadium since 1927, at one point finishing first in the league for seven straight years and winning four Stanley Cups in six years at the Old Red Barn on Grand River. Louis had fought there as a young amateur and an old champion; in failing health since the late '70s, he never set foot in The Joe before his death in April 1981.
Detroit Mayor Coleman Young started to construct a 20,000-seat arena on the riverfront in 1977, even though he had no tenants or financing.
Suburban developers tried to lure the Wings to Pontiac next to the Silverdome, offering millions in profit to a franchise that was losing money constantly. The potential Pontiac arena was called Olympia II, and the Wings actually had started selling suites.
The Wings might have ended up in Pontiac if it weren't for an extraordinary meeting between Young and Lincoln Cavalieri, then president of the Wings and Olympia. In a 1989 story published on the 10-year anniversary of The Joe, the Free Press' Chris Christoff provided behind-the-scenes details of their one-on-one meeting in the mayor's office in 1977.
It lasted only an hour or so.
"The first thing Coleman said was, 'I don't want you to move to the cornfields. We want you downtown,'" Cavalieri told the Free Press. "It was quite an experience with the mayor. He didn't screw around. He has a reputation as a hard-nosed guy, but he wanted us down there in the worst way.
"I outlined five or six things we needed. Right there, we agreed on them all. We shook hands. ... You don't see deals made like that. I didn't think he'd agree."
That single meeting changed everything, the entire face of Detroit, like a pebble hitting the water and creating ripples that continue to this day.
The Wings reneged on their Pontiac agreement, stayed in Detroit and walked away with a widely criticized sweetheart deal, scooping up all of the profits from The Joe as well as Cobo Arena and a parking garage for 30 years. Which led to Ilitch's grand plan to build an entertainment district in Detroit. Which, in turn, led to the renovation of the Fox Theatre, the construction of Comerica Park and the creation of The District Detroit.
Still, nobody wanted to move out of Olympia.
"Olympia was such a beautiful building with such a great history," Woods said. "The Olympia, in my mind, was a better building. It sounded deep. It had this real intensity. ... I loved going to that place."
When the Wings tried to celebrate 50 years of Norris family ownership on opening night of the 1981-82 season, Bruce Norris was booed vehemently, which he later described as the final straw. He sold everything to Ilitch for $8 million the following June.
A few weeks shy of his 53rd birthday, Ilitch immediately tried to warm up The Joe by renovating the offices, dressing rooms and press room. He put in new lighting fixtures and ordered paint on the walls. Mirrors were added to the weight room. "So the players can watch their muscles when they work out," coach Nick Polano joked to the Free Press.
A Little Caesars Pizza outlet was built under the stands. Ilitch gave away an American-made car at each home game, trying to lure fans to the arena despite his lousy team and Detroit's struggling auto economy.
On opening night for the 1982-83 season, the fans gave Ilitch a rousing standing ovation. "That was too much; I was all choked up," Ilitch said afterward. "It was a very, very touching thing. Ever see a grown man cry?" As Ilitch tried to make The Joe less ugly, the really significant improvement was how he changed the culture of the entire organization.
"It's my job as leader of the franchise to produce the proper environment," Ilitch told the Free Press in 1982. "This is my way of doing things. I talked it over with my wife and I said, 'Hey, Marian, I can't lay back. I know that we shouldn't do this or we shouldn't do that,' but I said, 'That's me. I've got to go out and aggressively do things the way I do them." ...
"I want to do things that are going to stimulate the fans along with the team members and the staff."
And he kept doing things, right up until his death at age 87 on Feb. 10, 2017.
FROM BOB SEGER TO SERGEI FEDOROV
So take it in one last time.
Look at the banners hanging over the ice; and yes, that sparks another flood of memories. Powerful, lump-in-your throat memories. Gordie Howe's visitation and Yzerman's jersey retirement ceremony.
Look at the folks in the stands. The dress code is still hockey casual — jeans and a Wings sweater, the older the better.
Over the years, they have tried to spruce up the concourse with banners, ads, murals, souvenir stands and kiosks, trying to pull a different revenue stream out of every inch of space.
During The Joe's final season, the floor was decorated with the names of the most famous acts to perform there: The Who, Bob Seger, Kid Rock, Madonna and Diana Ross.
But this building always has been about the hockey.
The Russian Five to the Grind Line.
It's Stevie. Shanny. Drapes. Ozzie. Sergei. Vladdie. Probie. Pavel. Z.
The list goes on and on.
This place isn't special because of the steel and concrete.
It's special because of the people and the memories.
It's the players and the ushers and that familiar face checking passes in the parking garage.
"I've been working for the Red Wings for 51 years," said Don Donohue, 81, of Plymouth, who used to be a "gate guy" at a parking lot at the Olympia and had worked almost every night doing the same thing in a booth at the parking garage near The Joe. "I've made up my mind that I'm not going to the new one."
He will retire along with The Joe. "It's time," Donohue said.
Indeed. It's time to say good-bye.
So, cherish the memories from The Joe. The sights and sounds. Hold onto the mental pictures of the Stanley Cups and the dazzling players and the rock-'em-sock-'em fights and all of those crazy nights — "Hey, hey, Hockeytown!"
But the building itself?
It was born ugly, and it will die ugly.
So be it. Hockeytown is not a building. It's a story that flows from generation to generation, from Olympia to Little Caesars Arena, and the wonderful stop along the riverfront will live forever.
The Joe: Great for hockey, bad for architecture fans
Hockey fans will cherish their memories of Joe Louis Arena. Architecture fans not so much.
The gray warehouse-like cladding of the city-owned arena ranked The Joe among the least inspiring public buildings in memory. And the banks of outdoor staircases exposed to the wintry winds off the Detroit River may vie for the least popular architectural feature in town.
But the failures of The Joe do not lie necessarily with its designers, the venerable Detroit firm now known as SmithGroupJJR, which as always had to make do with budget limitations and other constraints. The biggest drawback rests with the site chosen by city leaders. They placed the arena on the riverfront before we all recognized how important public access to a well-designed waterfront was to urban vitality.
The arena's 1970s-era placement on the riverfront — blocking the views, hemmed in by Cobo Center and moat-like roadways — necessitated an awkward approach through pedestrian bridges and tunnels. This arrangement belied any sense of importance and robbed the arena of those moments of visual climax that culminate in great architecture.
Putting it there was no better than one of those dreary concrete bowls in suburbia surrounded by acres of asphalt — but in this case transferred to the worst possible site on the river.
The future replacement for Joe Louis Arena will no doubt be better. Whether that replacement turns out to be a hotel, a residential tower or whatever, it is inconceivable now that the mistakes of the past could be repeated. Any future replacement will allow the RiverWalk promenade to be extended; it will take full advantage of the river vistas; it will no longer squat fortress-like on the riverbank.
So, shed a nostalgic tear if you will for the many hockey memories at The Joe. But, in terms of architecture, good riddance.
John Gallagher, a business columnist for the Free Press, has covered urban development and architecture for three decades. He is coauthor of "AIA Detroit: The American Institute of Architects Guide to Detroit Architecture," and author of "Great Architecture of Michigan" and "Yamasaki in Detroit: A Search for Serenity," among other books.
NEW ARENA TO BE STATE OF THE ART
JOE SLATED TO BE DEMOLISHED
By JC Reindl
Joe Louis Arena's replacement will be a new $635-million arena, situated in a formerly desolate part of Detroit along the old Cass Corridor between downtown and the gentrifying Midtown.
Scheduled to open in September 2017, Little Caesars Arena will be home to the Detroit Red Wings as well as the Detroit Pistons, who will return to the city after a decades-long absence. The Pistons will leave the Palace of Auburn Hills, their home since 1988. Seating capacity for the arena is expected to be around 20,000, essentially the same as at The Joe. There also will be 60 corporate suites.
The Ilitch organization is building Detroit's new arena, with help from about $285 million in public financing. The public financing dollars are from a complex tax-capture arrangement around downtown and the new arena's future commercial footprint, with the state promising to make up any shortfall in school taxes.
The Ilitch organization spent years studying arenas and event centers across the country for ideas for the new venue's design and novel features.
Little Caesars Arena's bowl will feature a flashy exterior "skin" that can change colors, display graphics and show videos. The arena concourse will feature a skylit atrium and be about three times the size of The Joe's concourse, with concessions on one side and restaurants and merchandise shops on the other.
For the hockey players, there will be a below-ground practice rink and training and weight rooms. Practice space for the Pistons is expected to be built apart from the arena but relatively nearby.
Two "gondolas" will hang from the rafters inside the arena, one with seating boxes and party space and the other for media reporters and photographers.
The neighborhood around the arena, once known for its party stores and flophouses, is slated to become home to a new entertainment and residential district. Plans call for hundreds of new apartments, several office buildings and a 350- to 400-room hotel. Most of those buildings will be new construction, although a long-vacant 13-story hotel, The Eddystone, is to be redeveloped into modern housing. A neighboring hotel, the Park Avenue, was demolished in 2015 to make way for the arena's loading dock.
The entire project is called The District Detroit, a 50-block area that also includes Comerica Park, home to the Tigers; Ford Field, home to the Lions; and the Fox Theatre, home to countless concerts and events.
As for The Joe, plans call for demolishing the arena and handing the property to one of Detroit's past creditors to fulfill a deal made during the city's Chapter 9 bankruptcy. That corporation, the Financial Guaranty Insurance Co., could later develop the land with a new hotel, retail stores and riverfront condominiums.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Joe by The Detroit Free Press. Copyright © 2017 the Detroit Free Press. Excerpted by permission of Triumph Books LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
ONE LAST GOOD-BYE Jeff Seidel looks back at Detroit's hockey home,HELLO, OUT THERE ... Broadcasters past and present reflect on The Joe,
FOR OPENERS The Joe opened without much flourish or fanfare,
BEST OF THE BEST Our top 35 moments for the Wings at the rink,
FAREWELL, MR. I For nearly 35 years, Mike Ilitch was Mr. Joe, with no ego,
FROM THE PRESS BOX AND BEYOND Free Press sports writers look back on their favorite moments,
POTENT QUOTABLES Players past and present wax poetic over The Joe,
OCTOPUS GARDEN Steve Schrader reviews some of the stranger sights and sounds,
OFF THE ICE Our list of the 25 best non-Wings moments,
BY THE NUMBERS Breaking down the Wings' — and others' — time at The Joe,
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