I was super excited when I bought the tix to this thing back in July, but when I showed up to the event yesterday I was not only underwhelmed by the entire operation but I was a bit embarrassed for the franchise. Player misspellings and autograph SNAFUs aside, the main floor of the event is pretty bad. There was one room in the cavernous ballroom that was completely empty save for a replica of LCA which was showing some highlight video you can prob find on YouTube. Needless to say nobody was in there for more than 2 minutes. Additionally, the limited memorabilia they had in glass cases was so underwhelming, you no doubt will find better, more interesting things in the concourse at LCA.

This franchise put so little effort into this event outside of 1) keeping the insanely overpriced souvenir shop full (hello $250 hoodie) having a full bar stocked with $15+ drinks which, sadly, is on brand for this ownership.

Do we have any standards? This is the Detroit (bleeping) Red Wings, not the Seattle Kraken. This is the 100th anniversary of the most successful American franchise in the sport and it was embarrassing to be there.

If you are still weighing whether or not to go, I cannot strongly enough suggest you not pay to attend this thing and do something better with your weekend.

33 comments

  1. This always seemed like a slap dash cluster f of an event to me, glad my instincts to steer clear were correct.

  2. Are we surprised? The in-game entertainment is a joke, the season ticket perks are minimal at best, and this is the same franchise that had a phone recording of a goal horn for six years, and the area around LCA is STILL undeveloped. Ownership is ok with cutting corners because suckers (including me) continue to spend money on our favorite team.

  3. Honestly felt the whole event is/was just a cash grab. I’m glad I only spent $15 on tickets, but I still feel I was fleeced. I feel bad for others that spent a ton on VIP tickets. The way autographs were handled was infuriating. The 4 or so exhibits were just ok. And they were tiny. Just a few jerseys and game worn stuff. I hard agree with you. For a celebration event of 100 years of the greatest NHL franchise this was a joke.

    And for the people that didn’t go, you could not exit the event or move to the autograph signing without being forced to walk through the entire fan shop. So if you went to autographs and then wanted to go back to the exhibits you’re forced to walk through the fan shop multiple times.

    I think the event paints a perfect picture of current ownership. They don’t care about us, the team’s history, or any of that. They just care about our wallets. And they know we love this team so they can get away with it. Tired of the greed everywhere. Sad and disappointed.

  4. I could tell from a mile away that this was a cash grab just from past experience with these “fan nights” and draft parties. They get worse every year

  5. My dad was excited about a “meet and greet” event with a couple of big names included. It ended up being a seating of like 300 people and they had a little podcast together on stage for a bit and called it a day. Money

  6. Chris Illitch dude. You know he looked at it and said “how can I bleed people dry at the lowest possible cost to me?” He’s such a disease.

  7. I don’t want to come off as a dick or know it all but the current generation of Red Wings/Olympia entertainment leadership dgaf about a good, affordable, approachable fan experience. I never expected this to be good, well organized or anything more than a cash grab. Look at the unfinished buildings right next to LCA that are going to be a decade old before you know it.

    Root for the team to your hearts content (as I do) but it’s led by a trust fund silver spoon baby who is cheap as fuck, out of touch and shamelessly only cares about pizza and parking lot money.

  8. I’ve read a lot of things from people that have worked in the non hockey side of the organization who have said it’s extremely poorly run. Not surprised to be honest Chris has been a far cry from his old man when it comes to running his two organizations. He could learn a thing or two from the Lions ownership/management team on how to run things, which is something I thought I’d never say. 

  9. Were you actually expecting good prices? Who goes to these events expecting that? The Pro shop at a normal game has jacked up prices, and you think the Fan Fest would be better? Come on.

  11. Did they end up doing the watch party? How was that? Other then the fact that we lost…

  12. The event was neat and I had fun but let’s be real the main event was the autographs and the way they handled them today really soured the whole thing for me. Hopefully tomorrow is better but the current team is what I’m most familiar with so I was obviously really bummed. Happy I could help my dad get a lot of his things signed by some vets tho

  15. The organization is poor from the top down. An extreme lack of vision and care for those working in marketing, security, and the core team structure. It’s a reactive organization, only moving when something goes wrong. They dont retain top talent in any area. Mediocrity runs wild. They will carry on this way until there is a dip in public opinion and cash flow. Same for tigers and pistons. All under the watchful eye of Olympia entertainment, 313 presents, ilitch holdings, etc.

  16. The Greyson Clothiers stuff is such a ripoff. Larkin’s an investor as well as a lot of pros so I’m sure that’s why they’re partnered, but it’s stupidly expensive. Being a premium brand apparently just means doubling the markup because I can guarantee the product doesn’t cost twice as much to produce.

  17. I see the ol’ Ref Wings mentality of “We’re the Red Wings! Our fans will show up no matter what and we don’t have to do shit” is still in fully display. Ilitch gonna Ilitch.

  19. I was actually kinda bummed to not be going to this. I am no longer bummed. so thanks for that.

  23. I am immensely disappointed. I am very happy that I only paid $15. I am first disappointed that when I got my tickets I had picked a guaranteed time slot. That was taken from me with no email telling that it has changed. We have to figure it out from looking at the FAQ on the website the night before to make sure we didn’t miss anything. Also there was no real information on this event other than what was happening in the “ballroom”. This event was very geared to children which is fine but it was a kids fan club event it seemed. We wanted to get signatures from the team (what we had previously got a time slot for). We got in line for GA at 12:00 pm and there was miscommunication between EVERY worker and volunteer (I understand not their fault). We finally got into the “sound board” and entered the maze of people at 2:00. We then realized that and noticed that VIP was being sent through and some people going through multiple times IN ONE TIME SLOT. They should get priority in some capacity I understand. We then were 50 people away from the first time slot for the team. Side note they put all the veterans/big guys together. That was absolutely insane, I understand they had practice and need to rest but without fans you have no team and they royally pissed off MANY fans! They were letting 30+ VIP through at 3 GA. We got closer to the front of the line for the second half of the team (young guys and fourth liners). We just let people pass to get to the 4:00 time slot. Now the time slot was amazing, don’t get me wrong. It was amazing to see Steve Yzerman as a surprise. But the last time slot they split the people up for signing so we did not even see Murphy, Constantinov, etc. All in all we waited 5 hours to get four signatures. It was poorly planned, ran and a huge disappointment. We just left we didn’t even go back into the “event”.
    They have pissed off so many fans tonight.

  24. Here’s my rant about the whole thing- I’m a STH and bought the 4-day general admission pass. It was supposed to come with one autograph pass per day. They had that total cluster of an online site, and ended up just giving everyone an anytime pass for each day. I was within 10 minutes of not getting autographs the first day, didn’t even bother to go Friday, and got no autographs today, despite getting there at 3:30 for the 4:00 session. I’m debating whether to even get up tomorrow to go

    Then, last night, there was supposed to be a Fedorov rinkside chat at 5:00. The email they sent said doors lock at 5:10. I pay $30 for parking and get there at like 5:03, and there’s a big group of people talking to an usher. Apparently it was randomly decided that the doors would lock at 4:55 and no one told us. So glad I took off work and paid for parking. They wouldn’t even let us stand inside, we had to wait out in the cold until 5:30. I had my jersey I get signed in my hand folded up, and the security woman screamed at me about “shaking it out” despite me doing that twice. She meant she wanted me to totally unfold it. What did that moron think I had hidden in a folded jersey that passed the metal detector? That was just the icing on top.

    If the email to renew came out today I would be out, and that’s very disappointing because Wings season tickets were a lifelong goal of mine since I was 10

  28. As a former season ticket holder and have dealt with crap in the past. Stop giving them money. I went from 30+ games a year to 1. I won’t even pay to watch at this point.

    I was paying for season tickets and the coke deals they sold were cheaper, got free food and underpriced me trying to sell any game I couldn’t make. Never again.

    They then took over the game worn stuff and increased prices 2-3x and wonder why it just sits in the store.

    Final nail in coffin was when Gordie howe died they took all the Felix GATT stuff and were supposed to display it and locked 90% away.

    Life size Gordie, all the goals against Roy in 02, tons of other stuff just “donated” and never seen again by the org.

    Sure I’ll pay clearance prices and go to a game, but otherwise it’s a joke.

  29. At this point….you all should know better. You have to all stop paying for this crap before it will ever get better.

  30. It’s really funny you reference the Kraken, as all of their events have been top-tier. Their arena is neck-and-neck for me with LCA, the Winter Classic was incredible, and their fans are awesome.

  31. I’m with you. Flew in and spent 4 days in a hotel to be here and it’s a fucking disaster..

    Outlier, so far, Night at the Fox 🦊 is fucking amazing.

    What a gorgeous theater.

  32. Dad and I went. We had higher expectations and was thinking that while not even close to as big as the NFL Draft for obvious reasons, we didn’t think it would be this level of bad. Just a damn good effort. We literally walked the room in like 10mins. Security were full of assholes with attitude and had no respect, like they are dealing with drunk gamblers at 1am that just lost their life savings. They could have easily moved the video of the moments in history to that room with the arena and just had Cup Finals games running on the TV for people to sit and watch. The “replica” Stanley Cup looked like an inflatable I could buy on Temu to put in my yard for the playoffs. The slap shot challenge was terrible. Who tf does this on carpet? Why a corvette dead center in the room? Why a random CAT stand? I personally don’t remember seeing any sponsorship stuff about them.

    A place in my city held a hockey exhibit at the children’s science center and it was 1000x better than this and even bigger. This whole event could fit in my parents yard.

    The actual workers inside the venue were very nice. But my biggest problem was the autograph session. What an absolute fucking joke that was. I bought the centennial box set from Upper Deck and was like “hey, I could get these signed at the event” so I go in, then have to go back to my car because they decided to change the list of players from what was listed online. They go from a specific time slot you sign up for to an “all day availability” to a “here’s a time slot for 5 players. You get only 1 session. Oh and if you’re not in line 3 hours early, you’re SOL.” Like wtf is this? I left with no signatures because I went to get in line for the team at noon, and they said it filled up already. That time slot didn’t even open until 2pm.

    I’m so glad we only played $15/ticket. What a joke. Chris really just doesn’t care at this point. He makes his money, and he’s done. Might as well be the Fords (before Sheila, bless her soul). I miss his dad.

    The ONLY positive I got was that I was so annoyed and frustrated, my wife went half on a centennial Larkin jersey as a Christmas gift for me. I just don’t get it until then.

  33. The last fan fest I was at was 2011 at the Joe. It was really fun! Sucks how far this has fallen.

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