Brass Rail Pizza Bar is close enough to Comerica Park to hear the roar of the crowd as the Detroit Tigers play.
The proximity to the home of the Tigers, Lions, Red Wings and Pistons makes the establishment a convenient option for people to get a slice and a sip on game days.
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“That is a huge thing for us,” said Mohamed Elmardi, the manager. “If it is not happening, our business is down.”
The Tigers will be on the field for real games soon, and the first home game comes Monday night against Kansas City. But there will be no fans as baseball and all other sports attempt to advance through the coronavirus pandemic.
“Tigers fans who may have season tickets and could come for a 1:15 game on a Wednesday don’t come because they don’t have a reason to do so,” said Kenny Valentino, assistant manager at Delmar Detroit, a rooftop. Bar and restaurant a few steps from the stadiums.
A dozen years ago, a recession and the collapse of the US auto industry hit Detroit hard. The last decade has seen the city recover, with the center and some urban neighborhoods attracting thousands of young professionals.
When the Detroit baseball team moved from the dilapidated Tiger Stadium to the newly built Comerica Park in 2000 and the Lions left the Pontiac Silverdome to play downtown two years later, it played a role in their return from town. The Red Wings built Little Caesars Arena nearby nearly three years ago. They convinced the Pistons to leave the suburbs to join them, and development continued.
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Downtown Detroit is now a sports fan’s dream: Lions roam alongside the Tigers at Ford Field while the Red Wingsand Pistons are across Woodward Avenue in Little Caesars Arena.
With professional teams from the four major leagues playing less than a half-mile away, there is no other center in the United States that groups such closely packed stadiums.
That means the pandemic hit a little harder here. The streets of Motor City often feel desolate amid restrictions related to the sports and concert pandemic and with many people working from home. Some companies near Comerica Park, Ford Field and Little Caesars Arena have simply not reopened since March.
“There will absolutely be business they won’t see,” said Adrian Tonon, who serves as a 24-hour economy ambassador for Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan. “I’m also sure some legacy businesses aren’t, either. He’s going to be here.”
However, the bars and restaurants in the area desperately wait for people to come and watch games on television with current social distancing guidelines.
“Real fans will still want to go out and be around other fans and not just watch the games at home,” said Valentino.
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Tonon has an optimistic view of the appearance of stadiums these days.
“If you look left and right, the Detroiters feel like they got their center back,” Tonon said. “That is our foundation and we have to build on that foundation. Eventually, sports teams are going to come back. Many companies have rotated whether they are online or open their yards.
“With all these things happening, we have created unity in Detroit.”
In recent years, something else brings Detroit sports fans together: The Lions, Tigers, Red Wings, and Pistons have generally underperformed and some of the teams have had a hard time attracting fans.
The Lions, who have had only one playoff victory since winning the NFL title in 1957, are coming out of their worst season in a decade, and yet the most popular team in the state still regularly gathers fans at Ford. Field.
The Tigers fell 114 games last season and have averaged more than 103 losses in the past three seasons. The Pistons haven’t been good enough to challenge anyone in the rare years they make the playoffs, but not bad enough to pick No. 1. And the famous Red Wings won 17 games with a low level of NHL last season and were given another setback during the lottery draw, falling to the No. 4 pick.
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Detroit professional teams were not always so bad. The Red Wings won four Stanley Cups from 1997 to 2008 during a series of appearances in 25 consecutive postseasons. The “Bad Boys’ Pistons won consecutive NBA championships in 1989 and 1990, and the team won it all again in 2004.
The Tigers have not won a World Series since 1984, but they did win the American League pennant in 2006 and 2012.
The Lions made the playoffs six times in a nine-year period just before the turn of the century and reached three postseasons from the 2011 to 2016 seasons.
Few fans expect a Detroit team title any time soon, but at least they know baseball is back to provide fun and perhaps a bit of hope.
“Somehow or other, hopefully, baseball at least puts a smile on his face as we play here,” said Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire. “And maybe, hopefully, sometime this summer, they’ll start opening where our fans can come back in and some of the companies can open.”
