Joe Louis Arena was constructed on the fly, and fairly quickly to help the city of Detroit keep the Detroit Red Wings within the city limits. In the mid to late 1970’s the city of Pontiac began to pilfer the Detroit sports teams. The Pontiac Silverdome was completed in 1975 and the Detroit lions moved there from Tiger Stadium. In 1978, the Detroit Pistons followed suit leaving the confines of the Cobo Arena for the Silverdome as well. That left the Red Wings playing in an aging facility that was located in a deteriorating neighborhood.

The city of Pontiac offered to build a new facility for the Red Wings on the grounds of the Silverdome and give them control of parking revenue. The City of Detroit matched that offer and agreed to build Joe Louis arena, give control of Cobo Hall over to the team, and give them access to revenue generated by two parking structures located next store. http://hockey.ballparks.com/NHL/DetroitRedWings/oldindex.htm

The Red Wings have called the Joe home since 1979. In 1997, 1998, 2002, and 2007 they won the Stanley Cup Championships. While the Red Wings are the only World Champions to call the Joe home, several other teams have played their home games there. The Detroit Rockers an indoor soccer team played there from 1996 to 2001, and the Detroit Turbos an indoor lacrosse team played there from 1989 to 1994. All of these teams won world titles while calling JLA their home. http://www.scottymoore.net/detroit57.html

Joe Louis has also been the home to several other intriguing stories over its history. In 1980, it held the Republican Party National Convention. It was there that Ronald Regan won his party’s nomination and picked George H.W. Bush to be his running mate.

It also was the home of WWE’s 2009 Royal Rumble, and in 2005 the Detroit Shock played their WNBA finals game at this facility beating the Sacramento Monarchs to win their second league title.