Taxpayer-Funded Detroit Arena Now Sports Massive, Hideous Corporate Ad

The taxpayer-funded new sports arena in Detroit that is not named after Gordie Howe unveiled a new “feature” Tuesday, one that will now dominate any aerial view of Detroit on every TV broadcast in the foreseeable future. The roof of the new arena features a gigantic, ugly logo for a third-rate pizza joint:

If this new plastered-on ad is surprising to anyone in Detroit, it’s probably because, when the late Mike Ilitch released plans and artist renderings of the new arena, there were no pizza men to be found. Instead, fans and forced donors got to see the coolest logo in sports lighting up the night.

Of course, artist renderings never, ever look like the real thing—they exist solely to sell a product—but this switch-up stings. Instead of an iconic symbol for a team it loves, Detroit gets a semi-nude, bald Fred Flintstone knockoff trying to eat pizza off a stick.

The process of building this arena is long past the point of ridiculous depravity, and this feels like an extra punch after the bell. Taxpayers have given hundreds of millions of dollars to fund this arena, and it’d be nice if at least one part of the place wasn’t a complete embarrassment.

H/t to Jon