Little Caesars Arena Switching Red Empty Seats to Black Empty Seats

Little Caesars Arena opened a little over a year ago. The downtown venue houses both the Detroit Pistons and Detroit Red Wings. After all the hoping and wishing, the dream of having all four of city’s professional sports teams in snazzy new venues within a few miles of each other has been realized.

But while both Comerica Park and Ford Field were both significant draws despite poor hometown play in their infant years, Little Caesars Arena has been a bust. Red Wings and Pistons games have both featured sparse crowds, which look even worse on television thanks to the venue’s stark red seats. Something about the color really drives home that attendance could be better. When one’s empty, everyone knows.

The empty red-seat public relations nightmare will soon be a thing of the past, though, as all 18,600 seats in LCA will be converted to black. It will take months, but hopefully be less of a blinking red light reminding everyone — especially taxpayers — of the arena’s $862 million price tag.

Another long-term fix being explored is fielding competitive teams. No word yet on how long that could take.