Tigers and Red Wings Owner Mike Illitch and his wife Marian on Thursday “announced a leadership succession plan,” as all their business holdings “will remain under family ownership,"according to Louis Aguilar of the DETROIT NEWS. One of their sons, Christopher Ilitch, "will eventually take on his parents' role in overseeing their entrepreneurial empire -- a role he’s been growing into for years now.” Mike Ilitch, who is 86, said, "Given the public nature of our companies, the wide range of interested stakeholders, the large-scale projects we are working on, and the thousands of hard-working employees we rely on every day, we thought it was important to publicly disclose our plans." Mike Ilitch "will continue to run" the Tigers and the Red Wings. Christopher Ilitch has run the day-to-day operations for several years, and Thursday’s announcement "formalized what has long been expected." He "will succeed his parents in their current roles over time" (DETROIT NEWS, 5/6). In Detroit, Reindl & Snavely note the announcement "didn't specify how Christopher Ilitch would take over" at the Motor City Casino Hotel and stay in compliance with MLB rules that "prohibit interests in gambling enterprises while owning a team" (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 5/6).
ALTER THE BRAND? In Detroit, Bob Wojnowski notes Red Wings Exec VP & GM Ken Holland "faces a vitally important offseason, with a new arena coming." Holland "hasn’t made an impactful trade in years, and there wasn’t overwhelming incentive to do so." There is "enormous incentive now to alter a team that’s old at the top, young at the bottom and lacking size and stars." Holland said, "This is probably the first summer since Nicklas Lidstrom retired, and now Pavel [Datsyuk], that I’ve got to look at trying to do more than adding to what we’ve got. Maybe we’ve got to shake up the pot a little bit" (DETROIT NEWS, 5/5).
