DETROIT (WXYZ) — Little Caesars Arena officially opened its doors to the public in September 2017, and as it approaches its seventh anniversary, the home of the Detroit Red Wings and Detroit Pistons still hasn't hosted a league All-Star game.
It also won't host one in the next two years, according to both leagues. The NBA's next two All-Star games will be in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
For the NHL, there won't be an All-Star Game in 2025 as the league will host an international tournament called the 4 Nations Face-Off. Over the weekend, the NHL also announced the New York Islanders will host the 2026 All-Star Game.
In October 2017, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said an All-Star Game or NHL Draft was in Detroit's future, but not right away.
"I'd like to see the District finished," Bettman said in 2017 during a press conference at Little Caesars Arena. "So that when we bring guests in from all over the world, they can see what the entire vision was and how it's played out."
In 2021, we reported on the promises the Ilitches made in 2017 about six residential buildings, calling it at the time the "largest single announcement of new apartment units, affordable units and redeveloped historic buildings in more than 20 years."
Then, in November 2022, Olympia Development of Michigan, Ilitch Companies and other organizations announced plans for a proposed $1.5 billion development of several new and renovated buildings in the District Detroit. That announcement came while several buildings announced in 2017 sat unfinished.
In March 2023, the Detroit City Council voted 8-1 to approve a $616 million Transformation Brownfield incentive for The District Detroit plan, and in May 2023, the council approved more tax incentives for the city.
SportsNet NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman reported this week that Detroit is "very much on the radar" to host an All-Star Game. However, similar to what Bettman said in 2017, Friedman reported the talk around the NHL has been that the league could wait until the projects around the arena are finished.
Friedman said the NHL has been impressed with what the New York Islanders have done around UBS Arena, which opened in 2021, and the team had been pushing hard to get an All-Star game.
There are no timetables to host an NBA All-Star Game, but we're told the Pistons are constantly talking with the NBA about the prospects of getting an All-Star game in the future.
According to a report published Wednesday in The Oklahoman, the NBA has several requirements for cities to host an All-Star Game, including a minimum of 7,250 hotel rooms and three five-star hotels, a convention center with 650,000 square feet of exhibition space and 75 nonstop domestic flights and at least 20 international flights.
Detroit hits the requirement for both flights and the convention center, however, it likely falls short on the number of hotel rooms in the Downtown area. More hotel rooms are expected to open in the next couple of years, and there are tens of thousands of hotel rooms when adding in the metro Detroit region.
While it has missed out on the games, the award-winning arena has hosted several other major events since it opened, including NCAA March Madness tournament games in 2018, and it's set to host the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight this March. It also hosted the 2022 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships in 2022.
The arena was also set to host the 2020 Frozen Four tournament – the finals for college hockey – but it was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
