Are the Pistons moving back downtown soon?

A few weeks ago, we asked in a poll if the Pistons should move downtown. The consensus was a resounding “Duh!” Obviously, the Detroit Pistons would benefit by moving from middle of nowhere Auburn Hills to somewhere within the city limits, and it would be even better if they could share the new arena like many other cities.

The question was sparked by discussion of building a practice facility near the new Little Caesars Arena. To add to the fuel of discussion, Chris Ilitch then said he was hoping the Pistons would move downtown, too. Cool!

Now we’ve learned through Bill Shea and Kirk Pinho at Crain’s that Oakland County has recently declined an offer to buy the Palace for a cool $384 million. Bill Mullan, media and communications officer for L. Brooks Patterson said they didn’t want another Silverdome situation. Makes sense.

According to Crain’s, “Patterson also said during Monday's interview that he has met recently with Arn Tellem, vice chairman of Palace Sports & Entertainment, and was told that the Pistons "are in the final stages of negotiation" to move downtown.”

So if anyone is interested in buying a big arena for whatever reason and has an extra $384 million to spare, Tom Gores seems to want to unload it.

We’ll keep updating this story until it doesn’t take us a 45-minute drive down I-75 to see a Detroit basketball game.

Related: Check out Pistons owner Tom Gores’ new digs in LA, an unusual deal which reportedly cost about $100 million and involved swapping out some of the properties he already had.

• Poll: Should the Pistons move downtown? [Curbed Detroit]
• Chris Ilitch: 52 projects in works around Wings arena [Detroit News]
• Patterson: Oakland County rejected $384 million deal to buy the Palace from Tom Gores [Crain’s Detroit Business]
• Ridiculous Holmby Hills spec house now belongs to Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores [Curbed LA]