Olympia Entertainment is an American sports and entertainment company headquartered in the
Fox Theatre in
Downtown
''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...
,
Michigan
Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...
. Olympia is a division of
Ilitch Holdings
Ilitch Holdings, Inc. is an American holding company established in 1999 to provide all companies owned by Mike and Marian Ilitch with professional and technical services. Its privately held businesses include Little Caesars Pizza, the National ...
, and owned by
Marian Ilitch. It owns or manages the
Detroit Red Wings
The Detroit Red Wings (colloquially referred to as the Wings) are a professional ice hockey team based in Detroit. The Red Wings compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the East ...
, the
Detroit Tigers
The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) Central division. One of the AL's eight charter franchises, the club was f ...
, the
Fox Theatre,
Joe Louis Arena
Joe Louis Arena was an arena in Downtown Detroit. Completed in 1979 at a cost of US$57 million as a replacement for Olympia Stadium, it sat adjacent to Cobo Center on the bank of the Detroit River and was accessible by the Joe Louis Arena sta ...
(management),
Comerica Park
Comerica Park is a baseball stadium located in Downtown Detroit. It has been the home of Major League Baseball's Detroit Tigers since 2000, when the team left Tiger Stadium.
History Construction
Founded in 1894, the Tigers had played at the c ...
(management),
Cobo Arena
Huntington Place (formerly known as Cobo Hall, Cobo Center, and briefly as TCF Center) is a convention center in Downtown Detroit, owned by the Detroit Regional Convention Facility Authority (DRCFA) and operated by ASM Global. Located at 1 Wash ...
(management),
City Theatre City Theatre may refer to:
* City Theatre (Detroit), Detroit, Michigan, United States
* City Theatre (Pittsburgh), Pittsburgh, Michigan, United States
* City Theatre, Sydney (1843–1845), Australia
* Altona City Theatre, Altona, Victoria, Australi ...
, Hockeytown Café, as well as the new
Little Caesars Arena
Little Caesars Arena is a multi-purpose arena in Midtown Detroit. Opened on September 5, 2017, the arena, which cost $862.9 million to construct, replaced Joe Louis Arena and The Palace of Auburn Hills as the home of the Detroit Red Wings of ...
, home of the Red Wings and
Detroit Pistons
The Detroit Pistons are an American professional basketball team based in Detroit. The Pistons compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division and play their home games at L ...
. Starting on December 1, 2007 Olympia began managing the entertainment venues at the
Detroit Masonic Temple
The Detroit Masonic Temple is the world's largest Masonic Temple. Located in the Cass Corridor of Detroit, Michigan, at 500 Temple Street, the building serves as a home to various masonic organizations including the York Rite Sovereign Col ...
after the Detroit Masonic Association ousted the previous management company Halberd.
Olympia Entertainment traces its roots to the 1927 opening of its namesake, the
Olympia Stadium
Detroit Olympia, also known as Olympia Stadium, was a multi-purpose arena in Detroit. Nicknamed "The Old Red Barn", it was best known as the home of the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League (NHL) from its opening in 1927 to 1979.
Histo ...
, longtime home of the Red Wings. By the 1930s, the Norris family, owners of the Red Wings, had formed Olympia Stadium Corporation as a management company for the arena. In 1979, Olympia Stadium Corporation became the management company for the newly built Joe Louis Arena, which was owned by the city of Detroit and leased to the Red Wings.
Mike and Marian Ilitch bought Olympia Stadium Corporation as part of their 1982 purchase of the Red Wings, and renamed it Olympia Arenas. They bought and renovated the Fox Theatre in 1987 and moved Olympia and
Little Caesars
Little Caesar Enterprises Inc. (doing business as Little Caesars) is an American multi-national pizza chain. Based on 2020 statistics, Little Caesars is the third-largest pizza chain by total sales in the United States, behind Pizza Hut and Dom ...
' headquarters there a year later. The current name, Olympia Entertainment, was adopted in 1996.
On October 8, 2017, Olympia Entertainment and
Palace Sports & Entertainment announced a joint venture known as
313 Presents, which assumed the responsibility of entertainment booking, production, media relations, and promotion of the two companies' six venues.
References
External links
Ilitch HoldingsOlympia Entertainment
{{Olympia Entertainment
Sports in Detroit
Theatre in Detroit
Companies based in Detroit