Well the wait is over and the Detroit Red Wings received the land so that they can build a new stadium in downtown Detroit.

The new arena will be built for the 2016-17 hockey season.

The arena will also cost an estimated $450-million dollars. In addition to the 450-million, there will be an estimated $200-million dollars going to entertainment, and retail development in the same area.

“We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity here to make downtown Detroit a magnet for jobs and people,” Tom Wilson, president and CEO of Olympia Entertainment, which handles the Red Wings’ business operations, told the council. “This will be the epicenter for sports and entertainment in Michigan.”

The council voted 6-3 and the project will bring many jobs to the city residents.

According to the Detroit Free Press, “Olympia Development, which will develop and operate the arena on a stretch of mostly dormant land north of downtown, has projected it will create 5,550 construction jobs and sustain 1,100 permanent jobs, which is 440 more jobs than at the Red Wings’ current home at Joe Louis Arena.”

I think that this is a great idea for the city and the Red Wings. Joe Louis Arena is getting old and is not improving any time soon. Plus it will be very nice for the Ilitch family to have another state of the art stadium in the city of Detroit.

Also according to the Free Press, it was “one of the largest land transfers in the city’s history, the Detroit City Council agreed Tuesday to hand over 39 parcels of land along the Cass Corridor to transform what was once a blighted, crime-ridden strip.”

I have visited the area many times and know a few people that live down there and I believe the hockey arena would be bringing life to a neighborhood that is not very lively. However, the downside of this move for fans is that the new arena will drive ticket prices through the roof. But the Detroit Red Wings have been the most consistent franchise in the city in the last 20 years, so I believe has more benefits than negatives.