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Ilitch Holdings Brings On Former NBA Exec Chris Granger To Run Sports/Entertainment Biz

Ilitch Holdings named former NBA Kings President & COO CHRIS GRANGER President of Sports & Entertainment. Olympia Entertainment President & CEO TOM WILSON and Tigers Exec VP/Business Operations DUANE MCLEAN will report to Granger, and he will report to Ilitch Holdings President & CEO CHRIS ILITCH (Ilitch Holdings). Prior to helming the Kings, Granger was a longtime NBA employee, having joined the league office in '99. He was an SBJ/SBD "Forty Under 40" honoree in '10 (THE DAILY). In Detroit, Bill Shea noted Granger is "widely credited with stabilizing" the Kings' business operations. He will be the "day-to-day executive in charge of the Ilitch family's sports and entertainment business that are their most public assets and chief revenue sources" outside of the Little Caesars Pizza chain. Granger "takes on the responsibilities and more" of STEVE MARQUARDT, who left his role as Ilitch Holdings VP/Olympia Development late last year. Marquardt was "functionally the executive in charge of making The District Detroit and arena projects happen, from strategy to finance to execution." Granger had been with the Kings since '13 prior to unexpectedly leaving this June. Granger was the exec in charge of "building the Kings' new home arena, the Golden 1 Center, that opened in September." In Detroit, his portfolio will include opening the $827M Little Caesars Arena that "anchors the wider mixed-use redevelopment of 50 surrounding downtown blocks" (CRAINSDETROIT.com, 7/24).

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