(Matt McCarthy/Daily News photos) These signs, shown on Jan. 17, are all that’s left to The Palace of Auburn Hills, the former home of the Detroit Pistons. The once state-of-the-art sport and entertainment venue was demolished in 2020 as the Pistons moved in 2017 to downtown Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena.

While in the Lower Peninsula back on Jan. 17, having been in Brighton to cover the North Central Jets 8-player football state championship game, I set out on an afternoon of exploring. To see arenas, stadiums and also the former sites of closed or raised ones.

After spending about 45 minutes at the area where the Pontiac Silverdome once stood, I traveled five miles northeast to 6 Championship Drive in Auburn Hills, the site of The Palace of Auburn Hills.

Much to my surprise when I got there, the first of its kind, state-of-the-art former home of the Detroit Pistons, had been raised … it was gone.

As I drove along Interstate 75 from northeast Pontiac where the Silverdome site is, along I-75 in Oakland County, there are multiple signs still along the highway directing drivers to exits for The Palace. As I got off I-75 at the closest exit, I could see The Palace’s sign — next to what appeared at first glance, a vacant parking lot, next to a construction site — that’s because that’s what left of the arena.

The Palace had been demolished and torn down beginning about a year ago. The project was completed on July 11, when the roof was demolished using explosives. How in the world I missed knowing about this happening is still beyond me, but it’s gone. …

Some brief background information as to how The Palace came about. From 1957 to 1978, the Pistons competed in Detroit’s Olympia Stadium, Memorial Building, and Cobo Arena. In 1978, owner Bill Davidson elected not to share the new Joe Louis Arena with the Detroit Red Wings, and instead chose to relocate the team to the Pontiac Silverdome, a venue constructed for football, where they remained for the next decade. While the Silverdome could accommodate massive crowds, it offered substandard sight lines for basketball viewing.

In late 1985, a group led by Davidson decided to build a new arena in Auburn Hills. Groundbreaking took place in June 1986. Using entirely private funding, The Palace cost a relatively low price of $90 million. The Davidson family held a controlling interest in the arena until Tom Gores bought it as part of his purchase of the Pistons in 2011. …

The Palace was built with 180 luxury suites, considered an exorbitant number when it opened. However, it consistently managed to lease virtually all of them. In December 2005, the Palace added five underground luxury suites, each containing 450 square feet of space and renting for $450,000 per year. Eight more luxury suites, also located below arena level, were opened in February 2006. They ranged in size from 800 to 1,200 square feet and rented for $350,000 annually.

The architectural design of The Palace, including its multiple tiers of luxury suites, has been used as the basis for many other arenas in North America since its construction. …

The Palace was widely considered to be the first of the modern-style NBA arenas, and its large number of luxury suites was a major reason for the building boom of new NBA arenas in the 1990s. Although the Palace became one of the oldest arenas in the NBA, its design contained the amenities that most NBA teams have sought in new arenas built since. …

In October 2016, it was reported that the Pistons’ ownership was negotiating a possible relocation to Little Caesars Arena, a new multi-purpose venue then under construction in Midtown Detroit, for the 2017-18 season. Little Caesars Arena was initially designed for ice hockey to replace Joe Louis Arena as home of the National Hockey League’s Detroit Red Wings, so some design modifications were needed to accommodate the Pistons.

On Nov. 22, 2016, the team officially announced that they would play at Little Caesars Arena in 2017. The final NBA game at The Palace was played on April 10, 2017, with the Pistons losing to the Washington Wizards, 105-101; ending a 42-year history of professional sports in Oakland County, which started in 1975 when the Lions moved into the Silverdome. …

Bob Seger held the final concert at the venue on Sept. 23, 2017. The last scheduled event at the venue was the Taste of Auburn Hills on Oct. 12, 2017. Other notable performers that held concerts over the years at The Palace were Sting, Pink Floyd, pop icon Michael Jackson and also his sister Janet Jackson. Aerosmith played the venue 14 times from 1990-2012. Others included Led Zeppelin, Bon Jovi, Prince and Michigan natives Madonna and Kid Rock. …

Other Detroit sports teams to make their home at The Palace were the Detroit Shock of the WNBA, the Detroit Vipers of the International Hockey League, the Detroit Rockers of the National Professional Soccer League, the Detroit Neon/Detroit Safari of the Continental Indoor Soccer League, and the Detroit Fury of the Arena Football League.

On Nov. 19, 2004, a fight broke out between members of the Pistons and Indiana Pacers. As the on-court fight died down, a fan threw a cup of Diet Coke at Pacers forward Ron Artest, who then rushed into the crowd, sparking a melee between players and spectators. The fight resulted in the suspension of nine players, criminal charges against five players, and criminal charges against five spectators. The offending fans were banned from attending games at the Palace. The fact that the fight took place at the Palace led to it becoming commonly referred to as the “Malice at the Palace.” The Palace was also the site of a brawl between the WNBA’s Shock and Sparks on July 22, 2008. …

Despite its closure, The Palace was still in top condition as a sporting and concert venue. However, it was located in a northern suburb, relatively far away from the city center, in contrast to the trend of “walkable urbanism” where the Pistons wanted to grow their fan base. The downtown area of Detroit where Comerica Park, Ford Field and Little Caesars Arena are located means Detroit is the only metropolitan city in the country where four professional sports teams play within walking distance of one another. …

It’s sad to see a once great venue gone, especially one that was very much in useable condition. It’s proof that money is the root of most decisions of this nature,

Detroit currently has the distinction of having its teams all play across the street from one another, good for them.