The Palace of Auburn Hills

The story

In late 1985 a group led by Pistons owner Bill Davidson decided to build a new home for the team in Auburn Hills, and ground was broken in June 1986. What made the project unusual was the money: the roughly $90 million cost was financed entirely with private funds, with no public subsidy. The Palace opened on August 13, 1988.

Its real innovation was upstairs. The arena was designed with about 180 luxury suites -- and unlike most arenas, which stacked their premium seating high above the bowl, the Palace placed suites on multiple levels closer to the action. The model proved so lucrative that the Palace's design became a template copied by arenas across North America. On the court, the timing was perfect: the Pistons won the NBA championship in their first season at the new building (1989) and repeated in 1990, then won a third title in 2004. The WNBA's Detroit Shock played there from 1998 to 2009 and won three championships of their own.

The Palace was as much a music venue as a sports arena, routinely ranking among the top-grossing facilities of its size in the world. The end came when the Pistons moved back downtown to Little Caesars Arena in 2017; the franchise's final game at the Palace was April 10, 2017, and the last public event was that October. After sitting idle, the arena was demolished -- the roof brought down with explosives on July 11, 2020.

What's There Now

The site was cleared; General Motors purchased it to build a parts plant supporting its electric vehicles.

Everything that was here

• 1988–2017

  The Palace of Auburn HillsTheater

  A privately financed arena that opened with the Bad Boys Pistons became one of the busiest concert halls on Earth -- then was blown up by explosives in 2020.

  See the map in 1989 →

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