The Palace of Auburn Hills

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The Palace of Auburn Hills

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The Palace of Auburn Hills (a.k.a. The Palace) is a large sports and entertainment venue in Auburn Hills, Michigan, a suburb located 33 miles north of downtown Detroit. Since its completion in 1988, it has been the home of the Detroit Pistons of the NBA; since 1998 it has also hosted the Detroit Shock of the WNBA. It was also the home of the now-defunct Detroit Vipers of the IHL (1994 - 2001), Detroit Safari of the CISL (1994 - 1997), and the Detroit Fury of the AFL (2001 - 2004). It has also hosted numerous concerts and other special events throughout its history.

[edit] History

Before the Palace opened, the Pistons had lacked a suitable home venue. From 1957 to 1978, the team competed in Detroit's Olympia Stadium and Cobo Arena, both considered undersized for NBA purposes. In 1978, owner Bill Davidson elected not to share the new Joe Louis Arena with the Detroit Red Wings, and instead chose to relocate the team to the Pontiac Silverdome, a venue constructed for football, where it remained for the next decade. While the Silverdome could accommodate massive crowds, it offered substandard sight lines for basketball viewing. A group led by Davidson built the Palace for the relatively low cost of $70 million, using entirely private funding.

The Palace's large seating capacity (22,076 for basketball; up to 23,000 for end-stage concerts and 24,276 for center-stage concerts) and suburban location have also made it very popular for large concerts and, to a slightly lesser degree, major boxing matches. The Palace was built with 180 luxury suites, considered an exorbitant number when it opened, but it has consistently managed to lease virtually all of them. In December 2005, The Palace added five underground luxury suites, each 450 square feet and renting for $450,000 per year. Eight more luxury suites, located below arena level, were opened in February 2006. They range from 800-1,200 square feet and rent for $350,000 annually.

The Palace has been used as the basis for the development of other luxury sports arenas elsewhere in North America, but the majority of these were built in downtown locations rather than suburban ones.

[edit] Trivia

The Palace of Auburn Hills is currently the largest arena in the NBA. This has helped the Detroit Pistons to achieve the highest fan attendance in the league since 2002.
The Palace is one of six arenas in the NBA that doesn't have a naming rights deal. Pistons owner William Davidson holds a controlling interest in the arena.
The Palace was the site of the Pacers-Pistons brawl in which a massive brawl broke out between the Detroit Pistons and the Indiana Pacers on November 19, 2004.
The Palace changes its address when one of its teams win a championship. For instance, when the Pistons won back-to-back titles in '89 and '90, it was 2 Championship Drive. It stayed that way until the Shock and Pistons won their league titles in 2004. With the Shock winning another WNBA Title, it should be renamed 5 Championship Drive soon. The Vipers' 1997 Turner Cup Championship has never been recognized in the address.