The historic red seats of the Detroit Red Wings will now be replaced by black ones in Little Caesars Arena. Announced by Chris Granger, Group President, Sports & Entertainment, Ilitch Holdings, Inc., the LCA will now have black seats.

Just 13 months after the opening of the arena, they are doing away with a historic part of the Red Wings franchise in exchange to not be completely embarrassed.

It is assumed that they are doing this because of the low attendance for both Red Wings and Pistons games since the arena’s opening. The red seats make it extremely obvious when someone is not sitting in them – on the broadcast it looks like a giant red wall during some Red Wings games.

Chris Granger goes on in the statement, “When the Pistons agreed to move to downtown Detroit and play their home games at Little Caesars Arena, many design features were either finalized or already in production. We very much value our partnership with the Pistons organization and have made this decision together. This change is also made with support and input from industry-leading concert promoters and our television partners at Fox Sports Detroit. The transition to permanent black seats will take several months but will have no impact on our guest’s event-day experience.”

There will be temporary black seat covers installed almost immediately for both the Pistons and Red Wings. Fans will not be affected by either change, as it will be done while the arena is not normally occupied.

The whole project will cost at least $3.5 million to finish.

The red seats, as seen by the number of fans that bought them, were precious to the atmosphere at the Joe Louis Arena. To carry over that tradition to the LCA was significant to make this a new home for the Red Wings – now that they’re gone for the sole purpose of not being embarrassed, a little part of Red Wings legacy has gone with them. The whole organization should be ashamed.