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Detroit Tigers Announce 2023 Spring Training Broadcast Schedule

Detroit Red Wings Activate Matt Luff from Injured Reserve; Assign Him to Grand Rapids

Progress Continues at The Residences@150 Bagley

Olympia Development of Michigan, Related Companies and Project Destined Expand Student Internship Opportunities to Include Wayne State University Students

Program Builds Upon Successful Partnership Offering Commercial Real Estate Internships to Detroit Public Schools Community District High School Students

Olympia Development of Michigan and Related Companies have expanded their work with Project Destined to offer a commercial real estate internship program for Wayne State University students. This builds on the companies’ previous Project Destined internships for Detroit Public Schools Community District high schoolers and demonstrates their ongoing commitment to providing educational opportunities for Detroiters and engaging the community.

“Working in real estate development allows young Detroiters to positively impact their community directly and we are very proud to help teach these students how to do that,” said Cedric Bobo, CEO and Co-Founder of Project Destined.

Project Destined was launched in Detroit in 2016 with a focus on increasing the number of diverse owners and leaders in the commercial real estate industry. The social impact platform, now active across 20 markets, partners with corporations, schools and non-profits to train students in the fundamentals of commercial real estate. Students learn through immersive sessions where they analyze live deals with experienced architects, contractors, bankers, developers, and others.

“Project Destined is helping to diversify real estate development, and we’re proud to support experiential internships like this that truly open the aperture for students, showing them how much is available to them in the field,” said Rian English Barnhill, Olympia Development vice president of government and community affairs.

“To watch the Wayne State team develop and win, through Project Destined’s model of train, compete, and grow is inspiring,” said Ryan Friedrichs, Vice President of Development at Related Companies. “The confidence, skills, and networks these students as future Detroit leaders build are assets not only for them but for our whole community.

”Wayne State University Provost Mark Kornbluh said of the program, “One of the great advantages of attending Wayne State University is the opportunity for our students to get hands-on, real-world experience through internships with companies like Olympia Development and Related Companies. Project Destined has opened our students’ eyes to the exciting opportunities they can pursue to help grow and transform our city, and the knowledge and skills they’ll need to do so. We are grateful for this partnership.

”Wayne State students who participated in the internship have expressed excitement about the real-world experience gained through the program.

“I’ve gained knowledge, skills and exposure to the commercial real estate industry that I didn’t have before! Seeing firsthand the investment that Related and Olympia are making in Detroit, and specifically The District Detroit, makes me excited for the future,” said Brittany McGee, a Wayne State University Junior. “Project Destined is preparing me to recognize opportunities of real estate ownership in Detroit and has helped me to develop relationships towards potentially stepping into roles with firms like Related and Olympia that are interested in new talent. I’m thankful that Project Destined has provided this opportunity and looking to take full advantage of the experience.”

“Olympia Development and Related Companies, along with Project Destined, helped us see where our talents could take us and brought us closer to the spirit of Detroit. Many of us live in this city and partake in its revitalization already, but with Olympia and Related, they gave us a front row seat to the process,” said Althea Robbert, a Wayne State University Senior.

“Sharing their goals for the city as it relates to culture and growth included us in the discussion and empowered us as students to take our next steps in an impactful way. Project Destined ignites the passion students have for real estate and directs them toward authenticity, growth, and opportunity.”

Detroit Tigers Announce 2023 Major League Coaching Staff

Oak View Group Launches National Theater Alliance with Inaugural Roster of Prestigious Performing Arts Venues, Including Detroit’s Historic Fox Theatre

Veteran Music Agent Noël Mirhadi Appointed Director to Build the New Alliance and Champion Collective Booking and Buying Power, Unique Content, and Sponsorship Opportunities

Oak View Group (OVG) announced on January 13 the creation of its national Theater Alliance, with an inaugural roster of 39 marque theaters and performing arts venues in 18 markets across North America that will benefit from collectivebuying power, routing of non-traditional content, sponsorship opportunities, industry best practices and resources, and shared proceeds from an annual fundraising gala.

OVG, the global venue development, advisory, and investment company for the sports and live entertainment industries, will announce the inaugural members of the Theater Alliance at the Association for Performing Arts Professionals (APAP) conference Opening Plenary Session on Friday, January 13. Members include:

ACL Live at the Moody Center (Austin, TX)
AT&T Performing Arts Center (Dallas TX)
Beacon Theater, Hulu Theater at MSG, and Radio City Music Hall (New York, NY)
Boch Center (Boston, MA)
The Chicago Theater (Chicago, IL)
First Interstate Center (Spokane, WA)
Fox Theatre (Detroit, MI)
Kimmel Center (Philadelphia, PA)
Loew’s Jersey Theater – opening 2025 (Jersey City, NJ)
Pabst Theater Group (Milwaukee, WI)
Paramount Theatre (Denver, CO)
Paramount Theatre (Oakland, CA)
Pittsburgh Cultural Trust (Pittsburgh, PA)
Portland’5 Centers for the Arts (Portland, OR)
Ryman Auditorium & Grand Ole Opry (Nashville, TN)
Segerstrom Center for the Arts (Costa Mesa, CA)
Stifel Theatre (St. Louis, MO)
Tulsa Performing Arts Center (Tulsa, OK)

“313 Presents is proud to be an inaugural member of the OVG Theater Alliance,” said Howard Handler, President of 313 Presents. “The Fox Theatre, Detroit’s crown jewel, is a destination for everyone within our community. This alliance provides opportunities for us to share and learn best practices from other iconic theatres around the country and to deliver even more to artists, tours and our guests.”

To give member theaters and performing arts centers a competitive edge within their markets, the Theater Alliance will help drive unique, exclusive, and traditionally mainstream content to its member venues; for example, intimate acoustic performances by some of the top names in entertainment.

OVG has hired music industry professional Noël Mirhadi as director of the Theater Alliance, tasked with building, launching, and growing the group. A longtime music agent, most recently at United Talent Agency (UTA), Mirhadi has spent her career focused on booking Adult Contemporary artists into venues nationwide. She brings a depth of knowledge and relationships as an expert in the world of performing arts and seated theaters. Additionally, she brings experience in the brand partnerships division, having paired UTA clients with top brands, products, and platforms. She previously worked in the Performing Arts divisions of APA and The Agency Group, which was acquired by UTA in 2015.

“Theaters serve as the heartbeat of their community. I understand and appreciate this sentiment having started as a musician and having gone on to dedicate my professional life and career to music and the arts,” Mirhadi said. “I’m thrilled to have joined Oak View Group as we create and launch our new Theater Alliance, which will support these critically important institutions and help them continue to thrive. We’ve put together a collective of premier venues that operate in strong markets and within even stronger communities. The Alliance will allow us to tangibly support their continued growth and success.”

The Theater Alliance is modeled after OVG’s Arena & Stadium Alliance, a collection of the top 38 venues in North America that provides a united platform for booking, content development, procurement, and sponsorship sales opportunities.

Joe Giordano, OVG vice president overseeing the Theater Alliance and Arena & Stadium Alliance, said: “The demand for the Theater Alliance was certainly amplified coming out of the pandemic. Performing arts venues across the nation, which are traditionally costly to operate, all face similar challenges.

The Alliance, under Noël’s outstanding leadership, is eager to continue building the network of top venues in first tier markets to help them meet and exceed their programming and budgetary goals, and bring opportunities to the table that they didn’t even know were possible.”

“The Theater Alliance is yet another way OVG uniquely serves our industry,” Chris Granger, president of OVG360, said. These theaters represent the best of the best. They are committed to work in concert not only to improve their operations and overall guest experience, but, perhaps more importantly, to creatively elevate the arts and attract a new generation of theatergoers from within their communities….because we are all better when the arts thrive.”

Detroit Tigers Announce Adjusted Outfield Dimensions

After garnering feedback from fans, players and front office stakeholders, the Tigers have announced adjustments to the outfield dimensions at Comerica Park.

For 2023 Opening Day, the center field wall will be adjusted to 412 feet. Additionally, the height of the outfield wall in multiple key areas will be lowered, most notably above the out-of-town scoreboard from 13 feet to seven. The foundation of the entire outfield wall will be reconstructed with material and padding that enhances player safety.

These changes modify the deepest parts of Comerica Park, while retaining the uniqueness and exciting style of play fans are accustomed to.

There are several benefits these changes deliver:

Reward hitter outcomes on balls hit to the deepest parts of the park
Maintain the high number of extra-base hits on balls in play to the gaps, resulting in action on the basepaths
Lowered wall height encouraging more electric defensive plays such as home run robberies

“This has been a topic of conversation for quite some time within our organization,” said Scott Harris, Detroit Tigers President of Baseball Operations. “We’re confident that this plan accomplishes our goals of improving offensive conditions on the hardest hit balls, while maintaining Comerica Park’s unique dimensions and style of play. These updates come after a great deal of research and feedback from all stakeholders in and around the organization, including our fans, players and front office. The outfield wall changes, combined with new rules from Major League Baseball in place this season, have the potential to create even more excitement and on field action for years to come.”

As part of the extensive research in planning these changes, highly accurate laser measurements were taken of the outfield wall. As a result, though the actual distance won’t change, the left field corner will be re-labeled from 345 to 342. The center field distance will be reduced 10 feet to 412, as the existing wall was measured at 422.

With Comerica Park’s new dimensions, the 412-foot center field will stand as the second deepest in baseball behind only Coors Field at 415, while the league average is 402.

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Little Caesars AAA 19U Girls Hockey Seniors Sign to Play D1 Collegiate Hockey

Six talented players on Little Caesars AAA U19 Girls Hockey team will continue playing the game they love, now as Division 1 collegiate athletes. Recently, high school seniors Sidney Jackel, Teagan Vaughan, Ella Blackmore, Kaia Malachino, Cassie Hall and Ava McIllmurray gathered with their families and coaches at their Little Caesars Arena practice facility and officially committed to play hockey at Division 1 schools.

Some of the players began hockey as young as four years old, looking up to older siblings who played the sport, and professional players like Manon Rhéaume, who was an important role model for many young women interested in hockey. Rheaume, coined as the “First Woman of Hockey,” coached U12 hockey and served as the Little Caesars AAA Girls Program Coordinator. Rhéaume began working with the Little Caesars league seven years ago, sharing a start time with three of this year’s signees. “

When I started seven years ago, my goal was to make a difference in those girls’ lives. Hockey taught me so many life lessons and I knew it would do the same thing to them,” said Rhéaume. “To see them along the way, facing adversity and to keep going and finally get to their dream of going to college is the most satisfying part.”

For Andrew McIllmurray, Manager for the U19 Girls team, this year is exceptionally special since his daughter is one of the college signees. “It’s amazing how quickly the time has gone by, and it’s been incredible to see how hard each of these girls have worked to get to this moment, which to me means that deserve it. And for us parents, it makes us proud to have watched them set a goal and achieve it,” said McIllmurray.

While each player has personal reasons for wanting to attend their respective colleges, they all have a shared goal to expand access to hockey for women. We sat down with them at their signing event as they reflected on their hockey journeys. Here are their responses along with their throwback hockey photos:

Ella Blackmore, this year’s captain, started playing hockey at age 4 and is attending Northeastern University in the fall.

“I love hockey. It’s a huge passion of mine, and it lets me have a goal while I work hard and build great friendships.”

Cassie Hall started playing hockey at age 4 and is attending the University of Wisconsin – Madison in the fall.

“I wanted to play hockey in college to continue playing the sport that I love while getting better and being surrounded by the best players.”

Sidney Jackel started playing hockey at age 4 and is attending Lindenwood University in the fall.

“I want to be the best player I can be, and play at the highest level that I can, and college is the next height.”

Kaia Malachino, one of this year’s assistant captains, started playing hockey at age 4 and is attending Colgate University in the fall.

“My favorite hockey memory is winning the national championships back-to-back, and I’m excited to be a college athlete and hopefully keep winning.”

Ava McIllmurray started playing hockey at age 5 and is attending Lindenwood University in the fall.

“I love hockey so much, and all the friendships that come with it. Keeping that in college is exciting and something to look forward to.”

Teagan Vaughan started playing hockey at age 8 and is attending Assumption College in the fall.

“It’s always been a dream of mine to play in college, and I always knew hockey was for me. I never want to quit. My goal has always been to go the farthest I can go in hockey, and right now, that’s college.”

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Detroit-Based, Black-Owned Restaurant Breadless Brings Healthy New Option to Little Caesars Arena

Detroit’s Breadless was born from co-founder Marc Howland’s long-time vision to make healthy, gluten-free, low-carb food options more accessible to people. Howland, along with his wife L.C. Howland and partner Ryan Eli Salter, launched their innovative and nutritional concept last year, initially with pop-ups around Detroit followed by a brick-and-mortar location at 2760 E. Larned St.

Breadless was also part of a dedicated effort to support Detroit-based, minority-owned businesses to Comerica Park. Now, from Nov. 14 – Dec. 13, Breadless joins other local restaurants Bert’s Marketplace, The Lobster Food Truck & Pitstop and others at Little Caesars Arena.

Providing exactly what its name states – a 100 percent bread-free menu – Breadless focuses primarily on serving “super green” sandwiches, wrapped in hearty, leafy greens – like kale and collards – with the goal of providing healthy options to traditional sandwiches. A crowd-pleaser at Comerica Park was the eatery’s Detroit Oyster Club, a sandwich with Swiss chard and roasted portobello oyster mushrooms, arugula balsamic tomatoes and onions, wrapped in a leafy green.

“Breadless bridges a gap. We are connecting with local farms and bringing fresh food and packaging in a way that is delicious, that you can get on the go in a convenient format,” said Howland.

“We are proud to welcome Breadless to Little Caesars Arena for upcoming events in November and December,” said Chris McGowan, President and CEO of Ilitch Sports + Entertainment. “This past summer at Comerica Park, we began showcasing small, Black-owned businesses in the city of Detroit. We’re privileged to continue bringing those opportunities to Little Caesars Arena, right in the heart of The District Detroit.”

Howland, an Ohio native, said he’s found his home not only within Breadless, but in Detroit. “Hopefully this incredible opportunity results in regular customers, which ultimately helps us to better serve our Detroit community and to grow with the city.”

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