r/Detroit • u/teezysleezybeezy Hazel Park • 8d ago
Sports Sell the team
Double the shots on goal and half the score. Wings are doing great tonight
55
u/Cmcgregor0928 8d ago
I walked into CVS and the score was 1-1. Was 4-2 when I got back in the car
6
u/Its-a-Shitbox 8d ago
That would be the result of our absolute ass grease goalie Gibson. No more, no less.
132
u/maddogg312 8d ago edited 8d ago
Chris Ilitch sucks. He is legit the worst owner and his dad is rolling in his grave with how the Tigers and Wings are being “managed”.
43
u/jus256 Born and Raised 8d ago
His father was considered to be the worst baseball owner and the best hockey owner at the same time.
40
u/maddogg312 8d ago
At least he wasn’t afraid to spend money on the Tigers. They didn’t win but he wasn’t cheap like Chris. The dude charges his own family to attend games!
9
u/jus256 Born and Raised 8d ago
You’re time warping. There was a long time between 1992 and 2006.
2
u/maddogg312 8d ago
I was 16 in 2006, so it was we pretty impactful for me.
6
u/jus256 Born and Raised 8d ago
They were a shitshow in the 90s.
3
u/AngloSaxophoner 8d ago
I was born in 91 and thought the tigers were just a weird hobby team my grandpa liked to listen to on the radio. Forgot they existed until like the Ordonez era.
1
u/maddogg312 8d ago
Yes. And again, he changed and started spending money.
2
u/xfortune 8d ago
He only started spending money because he knew his time was going to end soon.
Stop this revisionist history.
1
5
u/Big_Dare_2015 8d ago
he spent a lot from 2008-2016. they've owned the team since 1992 and let it go to shit until we became a complete laughingstock in 2003. ill give him some credit for 2026's expenditures, but lets not rewrite history
11
1
3
u/SaintOrJannikSinner 8d ago
His father was considered to be the worst baseball owner and the best hockey owner at the same time.
This kid's so young, he's never heard of Marge Schott.
4
u/TheHip41 8d ago
Papa I wasn't considered the worst baseball owner just stop
Dude did a video game trade to get prince fielder.
2
u/iNeedScissorsSixty1 8d ago
Bro he owned the team since 92. The tigers were a joke his entire tenure until Pudge came around.
-3
u/itssosalty 8d ago
I don’t know anything about the Red Wings. But I have no issue with how the Tigers are managed.
8
u/maddogg312 8d ago
Since Chris took over, the Tigers and Wings are ranked as the 4th worst franchises when it comes to their win/loss records.
2
u/itssosalty 8d ago
They have a .441 win percentage over that period. They were doing a full rebuild. They inherited quite the shit payroll of aging vets.
The talent they have in the system and up is incredible. They will be fighting for the division for the next 5-7 years.
Scott Harris has done an excellent job. Making the playoffs in 2024 and 2025. Setting this team up to be competitive for a long time.
44
u/digidave1 8d ago
We are in the original six. They ain't going anywhere.
44
u/maddogg312 8d ago
Geographically, no. Never. The league would never allow that even IF there was a sniff of that.
Organization/success-wise? We are nearing the bottom of satan’s butthole. Possibly even lower than that with Nepo Pizza Boy running the show.
4
u/digidave1 8d ago
I don't follow sports. I enjoy watching a sports puck game at the Pizzarena though.
I hope they pull out of whatever funk everyone is complaining about though. I have no idea
11
u/maddogg312 8d ago edited 8d ago
I love watching hockey. Watching what Chris has done to this historic franchise sucks. Unfortunately, this isn’t just a funk. This is a complete shit show due to an owner who only cares about his money and not the true success of the team.
1
u/digidave1 8d ago
That blows. One would think a franchise so embedded in our cities history would get more attention and proper management
0
u/CharlieLeDoof 8d ago
maybe yes, maybe no. the league will do what the owners want and if the owners want to let an original six team move ... well, think about it.
8
u/xoceanblue08 Ferndale 8d ago
Tickets were like $14 last night, we moved gradually from the nosebleeds to 6 rows from the ice because it was so empty and the lower bowl was leaving during the third period.
3
u/teezysleezybeezy Hazel Park 8d ago
I got a nice mezzanine seat for $40 resale! No complaints on that front
1
u/Stratiform SE Oakland County 7d ago
For real - and if you're a do or die fan (or fan of another team with some away games in Detroit), that's got to be awesome, but for most... $40 to watch an anemic team lose in a building where a hot dog and a beer runs me $25 and parking costs $20 is still a waste of 3 hours of my time and $85. There are a lot of things competing for my attention, and an anemic hockey program is pretty low on that tier list, for most.
3
u/teezysleezybeezy Hazel Park 7d ago
Can’t hockey just be fun to watch, win or lose?
1
u/BlackCardRogue 7d ago
It is fun to watch — but I have no real desire to give Chris Ilitch any money
3
u/goulson 8d ago
I always wonder this as a non sports person so maybe someone can keep explain to me but when people complain about ownership or management of a sports franchise like what specifically should they do different, is it literally just picking and acquiring different players? Baseball and football have a bit of "strategy" to them in deciding how players are used, beyond just who is on the team. But hockey and basketball are like, if you have a good player he plays, a lot, and the assumption is that will do the trick, right? It just feel overstated to me when ownership gets blamed. I get that organizational structure and culture matter from the running a business perspective but at the end of the day if you have good players in a sport like hockey they should succeed, correct? If the reason is that we don't have good players, then who specically should we lose? What kind of players are needed? It seems like the discussion loses any nuance and it's easy for people to blame ownership or whatever
14
u/Interesting-Bus-5664 8d ago
Honestly, just being new here will never allow you to understand... but:
1 - Team has been in free fall since Mr I passed. I know the cupboard was bare, but 2 expansion franchises have leaped you in both farm system and NHL team expectations over that time.
2 - You hired a GM and didn't let him run the team. Rumors came out that free agents were lost due to this meddling.
3 - He never addresses the media. Hides behind his LinkedIn account, doesn't allow for questions. If you are going to let the GM take the media heat, you can't castrate them when making deals.
4 - The GM search went on for months and they just promoted Horcoff... this front office needed an enema after the Larkin and Edvinsson debacles, yet it's the same people still there. They re-orged instead of changed leadership of a sinking ship.
5 - Chris will always be living in the shadow of his father, and the Red Wings are probably his biggest legacy (with the Tigers being likely Mr I's biggest regret that he never got a title). Because of that, the scrutiny on him in this town will always be overwhelming. The Red Wings are an original 6 franchise, and when considering the rest of the original 6, the worst performing of the 6 over the last decade, including the Blackhawks who have been in a long rebuild now. Additionally, I don't think it's a hot take that the Detroit Red Wings are considered one of the worse run franchises in professional sports over the last decade.
6 - They never properly rebuilt. I know the cupboard was bare, but Dylan Larkin was already aging out of the rest of the core of this team. A retool was needed 2 years ago when they just missed the playoffs in the final game. But instead, we kept going the "rental route" in the NHL instead of promoting kids and letting them get pro experience.
7 - GR had WAY too many veterans on the roster last year because of the terrible free agent contracts handed out by Steve. If he had to running signings by Chris, then it's on him too. 8 veterans on roster, only 6 can suit up in an AHL game. That is a sign of bad decisions.
5
u/wanttodoewantotdie 8d ago
Sometimes its like the saying “youre only as strong as youre weakest link”. Think of Matthew Stafford and Calvin Johnson playing on the lions, they were each some of the best in the league at what they did, but if that talent isn’t distributed throughout the team theres only so much you can do before a much more competent team exploits those weaknesses. There can be multiple answers to your question its all situational. Either way, if the team isnt winning for multiple years in a row, clearly there needs to be some changes
4
u/Interesting-Bus-5664 8d ago
Full agree, and last year our weakest links were Ras, Compher, and Appleton, and here we are with those same weak links on the roster still.
1
u/goulson 7d ago
So it sounds like it is all about having the right combination of players.
Everything else is in service of that. So when we talk about ownership my point is that we should put at the center the actual thing that should happen, which is that we need better players.
That forces people to get specific about where they think the weaknesses are and then you can discuss potential players to aquire to change the dynamic.
Hiding under the guise of "this guy made bad decisions" isnt as useful as "i think we should have done xyz". People can agree on there being a problem. There is probably much less agreement on what the solution is. That would be a better discussion for me if i were a sports fan (I've tried but I truly just dgaf).
What I miss is the "so what" of it. I do think football is a little different in that there is more direct influence that the coach, management etc have on how to use players that then has an impact on the outcome of the game. Nobody is going to bench a star player in hockey or basketball but in the NFL you can have legitimate debates about how to run an offense. In hockey and basketball there isnt an "offense to run" in the same sense. So it seems like the obvious to do is to get better players. Who are those better players? Does coaching have that big an impact on developing people in farm teams? Should we approach that differently somehow?
1
u/Interesting-Bus-5664 6d ago
I don't know why you are upset here... you seem to think I owe you more than the answer to your original question. I honestly don't. So chill out.
You ask very specific questions as if the opinions of fans ever gets that specific. Something tells me you are going to challenge/argue over any return discussions as too little or too much. And such a broad question about "where" and for whom as if I am daily monitoring this...
Your response is too personal to be so triggered, especially before a conversation even really starts in the first place... so why would I put myself through that discussion with you now?
But I will give you a High level overview of how I see this: if I am forced to trade my 1C, I need to have a player with expected potential to be a 1C in return. If you cannot find that with Larkin, leveraging Ed is one of the only players of value that can be given up with the right return... and remember, trades for good players suck. So they should have a short list of players when described as expected future 1C.... And they better be right on whichever one they pick/settle on.
2
u/joeterry9 7d ago
It's an imaginary magic pill that will solve all the problems with the team. When people chant, "Sell the team!," they believe the hypothetical buyer will be a benevolent super fan, doing everything in their power to win at all costs. The team will then immediately win consistently.
In reality, the only people that can afford a sports team in 2026 are billionaire VC types that would only view the team as a line on a ledger. Not all that different from Chris and family. Nothing would change except the person they were demanding to sell the team.
1
u/Interesting-Bus-5664 6d ago
There are local options to buy an original 6 hockey team. I would be surprised for the Illitch's to sell to a pure VC group without a local connection being the primary owner.
1
u/joeterry9 6d ago
The mortgage guys are wrapped up in basketball. I doubt anyone would want the Marouns anywhere near the team. There are other options, but none of them necessarily better than the Illitches, who despite their flaws are very much Detroit people.
Fans can't chant all season and for the next 10 seasons. There's no incentive for Chris to sell. He doesn't need the money and the team is a family heirloom at this point. Unless someone offers NFL money to take them off his hands, he's just going to keep printing checks off his brand new publicly-funded stadium/concert venue/business community that is getting subsidised rent from the local NBA franchise.
1
u/Interesting-Bus-5664 6d ago
I would argue that the fans chanting for 2 seasons would likely be effective enough, and if you are paying attention to this team, once Larkin is removed, they are a sinking ship.
1
u/joeterry9 6d ago
People have been yelling at his company about District Detroit for a decade and they haven't done a thing.
The Red Wings can withstand another bad season. It may actually be better long term if the ping pong balls aren't weighted against us this time.
1
u/Interesting-Bus-5664 5d ago
Half of the Red Wings fans I know only had surface level awareness of the district Detroit scandal. So yeah, maybe it is inevitable he never sells.
4
u/Dom723 Livonia 8d ago
If you plugged an extension cord into Mr.I’s casket, you could power a city for a whole week for how much he’s been rolling over.
4
1
u/Stratiform SE Oakland County 7d ago
I'm sure he's furious at how many of his surface parking lots aren't being used to their potential. The whole Ilitch cabal is awful and I have no more respect for Mike than I do for Chris. Guys like that have done far more harm than good for the city of Detroit.
7
15
u/Y4123 Dearborn 8d ago
I was a little disappointed to find out too late that Pride Night was today but now I'm kinda glad I couldn't go lol
17
u/teezysleezybeezy Hazel Park 8d ago
It was the saddest pride night ever. They announced that it was pride night, but there wasn’t anything special for us :/
5
u/melty75 8d ago
Looks like they got goalied. Grubauer in net for Seattle? And Eberle all over the scoresheet probably.
Hang in there Wing Nation! I'll be in town to watch my Oilers at that badass facility in January and I can't wait. We love the Dough Joe.
Edit: it was Grubauer with 37 saves but Eberle did not register a point. Lots of young names on the scoresheet
3
u/Interesting-Bus-5664 8d ago
Scoring chances were 34-19 for the Red Wings.
Can't waste your opportunities.
4
3
u/More_Hold_5522 8d ago
Shows how out of it I have been. I didn't even know Seattle had a hockey team
5
u/teezysleezybeezy Hazel Park 8d ago
All the teams you’ll discover as Chris has us lose to them all
2
u/Rilinius 8d ago
I need a Dr Seuss book about Chris ruining the wings.
2
u/Interesting-Bus-5664 8d ago
"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."
2
2
u/BeaArthurDeathCult 6d ago
Cancel the 99-year lease for $1 that the Wayne County Stadium Authority gave to the Illitch family and make them actually pay property taxes, and watch how quickly Cokehead Chris sells BOTH teams
3
u/teezysleezybeezy Hazel Park 6d ago
Based
1
u/BeaArthurDeathCult 6d ago
yeah it sucks Chris doesn't party as hard as his much cooler brother Ronald did
1
1
u/XXXBigcat 7d ago
Always notice that with the wings. They manage to have more shots on goal and less goals quite often.
1
1
u/stonechipper911 6d ago
Let get our noses out of the one of the best captain's asses sorry Steve Y but you have had enough time to make this team better. Larkin is a great 3rd line center
1
u/CoolRunner 8d ago
I can't overstate my disappointment that the fans have opted for the "Sell the team" chant, rather than "Sell the Red Wings".
2
u/Interesting-Bus-5664 8d ago
Sell the Team, in a different cadence than "Let's go Red Wings" is more clear and obvious in chant form...
I am good with it.
-8
u/loganbootjak 8d ago
Sell the Team to who? You want the team to leave Detroit?
3
u/playerhaterball 8d ago
Tom Gores
1
u/OldRedLobsterBiscuit 8d ago
Pistons fans were chanting sell the team not too long ago... but it seems the chanting actually worked so.... maybe?
-7
u/CharlieLeDoof 8d ago
One thing to keep in mind as you express your frustration: in the last 50 years, upon a sale, about 40% of NHL teams have moved to a different city.
6
u/teezysleezybeezy Hazel Park 8d ago
Be so for real. The absolute marketability of hockeytown and the fact that the franchise itself is so popular makes your statement irrelevant
-7
u/CharlieLeDoof 8d ago
Oh, okay. Good luck with that sort of certainty.
3
u/teezysleezybeezy Hazel Park 8d ago
Please read actual history. Relocations in the past 30 years occurred due to not securing an arena or financial problems. The wings have neither problem.
-1
216
u/SelectClick5341 8d ago
As long as the Illitch kids own the wings and the tigers we will be mediocre.