I have been to the Palace twice, I agree that the location of the Arena in Auburn Hills isn't ideal to host a professional sport team. transportation is utterly poor. I had my acceptance from Oakland university in the Chemical engineering department, nearby the Palace, so I frequently visited the city back then, good old days. The Joe location is perfect, but the Arena itself can barley host one team, and isn't in great condition as of recently. I still think building a new arena in the Joe location would be perfect. The question then, would Cobo be able to host both teams until a new Arena is built there.
Cobo would not be able to host both the Wings and Pistons should they tear down the Joe. It's older than the Joe. If they wanted to revamp that area, I think Illitch would have to buy Cobo as well. It would be a sweet location but I don't see it happening. To me, Illitch has this utopian view of all major teams located in the same area around Ford Field. It sounds nice at first glance, but they are running out of room down there. Throw in the fact we need space for more family style restaurants down there and more casino idiocy (as per the owners of MGM), it's going to be difficult to fit all this stuff down there, even if some lots are vacant.
I think the plan will be that the Joe gets sold to Cobo and a new stadium is built to house the Wings and Pistons. Where exactly, I don't know.
