Quote:
Originally Posted by cephasjames
A serious question: with the city of Detroit declaring bankruptcy, do you think the Tigers may be in jeopardy of some day leaving Detroit?
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No. The Illitch family is committed to Detroit, and as long as the money keeps rolling in, the team will stay in Detroit. This ain't Montreal, with a zero fan base, after all.
The city doesn't own Comerica (or any of the other sports venues except for JLA, and Illitch is moving the Red Wings to a new complex soon), and the city really doesn't provide much else other than police/fire/EMS.
(Which is its own issue, but let's hope bankruptcy changes things around in that regard.)
Besides, the city doesn't really provide the income. It's the people from the suburbs, and as long as they feel safe in coming to the games, there won't be a problem.
Also consider that downtown Detroit (where the Tigers and Lions are) is booming and the mid-city area is recovering, albeit slowly. It's just the city's mismanagement and corruption (Kilpatrick, et al) that wrecked things and saddled them with untenable debt.
Bankruptcy (and contraction of city area) should help the situation... hopefully, along with finding responsible adults to govern the city. Those are hard to find anywhere these days.