While the NBA Playoffs are heating up to determine the next NBA Champion, the organization is mum about what cities will host the 2025 and 2026 All-Star Games. The next two years are set: Salt Lake City (2023) and Indianapolis (2024).
Hosting the prestigious three-day weekend of the game would be huge for Detroit, complete with an international spotlight and people from at least 215 countries tuning in. In addition, an economic windfall, perhaps pumping more than $100 million into the local economy, is highly possible.
Cleveland hosted the 2022 All-Star Game and reportedly raked in $100 million for its local economy over the three-day weekend of festivities. The Downtown Cleveland Alliance estimated that approximately 428,000 people crowded downtown, flooding hotels, restaurants, clubs, bars and other venues and businesses.
In 2019, Charlotte, the host city for the All-Star Game Weekend, reportedly saw an $87.7 million economic impact. As with any city that has hosted the mega weekend, it meant the influx of NBA players, celebrities, fans and media personalities, all spending money on hotel rooms, food, liquor, souvenirs, entertainment and other activities.
Is there an effort afoot to attract the Big Game to the Motor City after the Detroit Pistons and other local powerbrokers made a bid in 2017 for the 2020 or 2021 NBA All-Star Game?
“Similar to NBA All-Star bids that were submitted by our organization in 2017, we are always evaluating opportunities to showcase Detroit and the vibrancy of the city,” Pistons’ Vice President of public relations Kevin Grigg told the Chronicle. “The NBA has not opened another cycle for bid submissions regarding future all-star games at this time. However, we will continue to monitor that process and strategize with local organizations like the Detroit Sports Commission on how we can leverage our assets to bring big sporting events to Detroit.”
Since the inception of the NBA All-Star Game in 1951, the mid-season classic has been played in Detroit only once: 1959, at the old Olympia Stadium. In 1979, the game was played at the Pontiac Silverdome, home of the Pistons from 1977 to 1988. The venue was 31 miles from downtown Detroit.
The Pistons played at The Palace in Auburn Hills for the next three decades before moving to the newly-built Little Caesars Arena in downtown Detroit to start the 2017 season. Shortly after the move, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver reportedly met with the Pistons’ top brass to discuss, among other things, the potential of the NBA All-Star Game coming to the Motor City.
Pistons owner Tom Gores was excited about the big game in Detroit being discussed.
“Detroit is an iconic sports town with some of the most passionate basketball fans in the world,” Gores said in a statement. “There is also a spirit of renewal and an energy in Detroit right now that is unlike anywhere in the country. I want the league and all fans of the NBA to be part of this incredible turnaround story.”
Detroit’s capability to host mega sporting events rose exponentially after Super Bowl XL was played at Ford Field in 2006. The city hosted the Detroit Tigers playing home games in the 2006 and 2012 World Series. Additionally, Detroit has hosted many Detroit Grand Prix races, Rocket Mortgage PGA Classics, and NCAA collegiate sporting events.
In April 2024, the “football universe” will focus on the NFL Draft held at the outdoors Campus Martius Park in Downtown Detroit. It’s estimated that 600,000-plus people could converge on the Motor City to watch and celebrate the three days of the draft. Less than a month later, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Regional Games will be held at Little Caesars Arena. As many as 175,000 are expected to celebrate on downtown streets and at restaurants, bars, clubs and other pop-up entertainment venues.
With supersized sporting events slated for Detroit over the next five years, which hopefully will include the NBA All-Star Game, city businesses, in general, will be the victors, including many Black-owned businesses, especially if the NBA makes concerted efforts – as in Cleveland – to spur the Black economy by proactively spotlighting Cleveland-Black-owned businesses.
Could the same happen in Detroit if the giant-three-day basketball classic is awarded?
“Detroit is unlike any other place in the country,” said Dr. Danielle Benson, president, Detroit Black Chamber of Commerce, who added that 80 percent of the 62,000 small businesses in the city are Black-owned. “It would be essential that the NBA makes it a priority to have successful outreach campaigns at least two years in advance to connect with these entrepreneurs who are the core of the city’s economic foundation.”
“There are at least 100 Black-owned popular restaurants within a 10-mile radius of downtown Detroit, many of which should be vendors or serve as concessions during the NBA All-Star Weekend,” said Dr. Cecil Forbes, president, National Business League Detroit Chapter.
Stephanie Byrd, co-owner of Flood’s Bar and Grille, The Block (a restaurant and bar) and Garden Theater, agrees. Her three hospitality businesses are approximately one mile from Little Caesars Arena.
“I hope that the NBA would focus on Black businesses in Detroit because we are the Blackest major city in America,” said Byrd, hoping the NBA would follow the same path it did with Cleveland’s Black-owned businesses. “But there has to be someone to champion on behalf of Black businesses here, especially in the hospitality industry and out in the neighborhoods, to support us when visitors come to Detroit for the All-Star Weekend.”
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