Fansided

Red Wings drops renamed Joe Louis Arena after gross pizza chain

By JK Long

Apr 17, 2016; Detroit, MI, USA; Detroit Red Wings center Dylan Larkin (71) skates with the puck during the first period in game three of the first round of the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Joe Louis Arena. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 17, 2016; Detroit, MI, USA; Detroit Red Wings center Dylan Larkin (71) skates with the puck during the first period in game three of the first round of the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Joe Louis Arena. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Red Wings have ruined the only thing that made them sorta of cool, all in the name of Little Caesars 

Hockey! Hockey!

That might be the new chant heard around Detroit as the Little Caesar’s pizza chain, famous for its Pizza!Pizza! advertising campaigns, landed the naming rights for Detroit’s new, 20,000+ seat downtown stadium, the new home of the Red Wings. Little Caesars CEO Dave Scrivano said that the world’s largest Little Caesars logo, a toga-wearing, pizza loving cartoon figure, will be depicted on the roof.

Expected to be completed for the start of the 2017 hockey season, the $1.2 billion facility will also host a multitude of sporting and entertainment events. The 20-year agreement will cost the pizza giant $120 million over the life of the contract.

Little Caesars Arena will replace Joe Louis Arena, named after legendary Detroit boxer and heavyweight champion Joe Louis, which opened in 1979 at the cost of just $57 million. Despite hosting hundreds of Red Wings games over 35+ years, arguably the most famous event ever held inside Joe Louis had nothing to do with hockey. In 1994, it was the site of the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, well-known for the post practice attack on Nancy Kerrigan by friends and associates of Tonya Harding.

Replacing a name like local legend Joe Louis with a pizza cartoon character has been met with disappointment and resistance from some of the locals, who immediately took to Twitter to voice their dissent.

“Tell Chris IIitch, (president and CEO of Ilitch Holdings, which will run the new stadium) on behalf of Wings fans, Joe Louis fans, Olympia fans…#Nothanks” wrote C.T.@Iservedrinks.

“All the wait & hype for this lame, predictable name? Should be Olympia.” said P@DetroitDivePP.

Linda Kennedy @LindaKe18525 simply wrote, “Really?”

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