I have so much respect for Ilitch and the teams he built. It is too bad Detroit never won the series for him (2012 Giants represent!), but the Red Wings were a power house for a good 15 years.
It has been years since the end of classic Little Caesars in my area, and only relatively recently that their new place/approach showed up in these parts---but damn there are Some Memories of the old days this brings up....better times and nearly catching a long box in a glass door more than once as a young kid.
Hard to say we'll see another of the Big Name places lose their star quite to this degree of folks feeling it---not unless Pizza Hut has a heritage up top that I'm entirely unfamiliar with as they are all that is left with a chance for it.
Guy was one of the few sports owners who actually cared about what he did and the people he affected. Self-made billionaire who truly loved Detroit, even with all its faults. He invest so much money into Detroit over his career, I'm pretty certain the place would literally be "Escape from Detroit" if he didn't exist.
At this point, they have to rebuild. The only reason they've been hanging on was to try to win one for him, the problem is that they waited so long that all their tradable assets are either gone (Scherezer) or in decline (Cabrera, Verlander). So they're going to be stuck being mediocre for a little bit.