Report: Ilitch family under fire for reportedly deceiving fans and citizens of Detroit

The owners of the Detroit Red Wings organization, the Ilitch family, are coming under fire due to their characterization in an upcoming episode of HOB’s Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel. The episode, titled “Motown Blues” chronicles the Ilitch family’s unfulfilled promise to create five new neighborhoods in the area surrounding Little Caesar’s Arena. The promise was made to ensure a “sweetheart arena deal” for the wealthy family, despite the fact that the city of Detroit was facing a $18 billion bankruptcy at the time.

Sonia Khaleel of the The Detroit Metro Times reports:

The one-hour episode, which premieres at 10 p.m. on Tuesday, discusses how “District Detroit” was once promoted as Detroit’s largest residential development in decades. However, there’s little evidence of residential development there, and instead of houses, apartments, or hotels, the 50-block area mainly appears to be home to parking lots and structures. 

U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib says, "They promised it as something that would trickle down to the neighborhoods. It hasn't trickled down.”

“They’ve developed none — zero,” Francis Grunow, a member of the Neighborhood Advisory Council, said in a preview of the episode.

He went on to say, “I do understand these things take time, but, you know, they opened the arena on time, ahead of schedule. They know how to do things when they want to do things.” 

The District Detroit has been in the planning stages of development since 2014. $324 million of taxpayer money was used to build the city-owned Little Caesars Arena, which cost a total of about $863 million.

For a preview of tonight’s episode, click the video below: