Official word that the Detroit Pistons will move to downtown Detroit for the 2017-18 season could come within days, if final details can be worked out, sources close to the discussions said.

Talks have continued this week between the Pistons' ownership and Olympia Entertainment on moving the basketball team as it prepares to open its upcoming home season on Friday.

There is no formal timetable for an announcement at this point. No final agreement has been reached, and the talks could still fall through, sources say. Potential additional deals involving the entertainment and broadcast rights portions of their respective businesses are expected to take longer.

Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores will be on hand Friday at this year's home opener at The Palace of Auburn Hills, and it could be an opportunity for him to announce the franchise’s increasingly likely relocation to downtown Detroit. He has acknowledged previously that the team is interested in downtown Detroit, and Olympia executives have publicly expressed desire to have the Pistons as a tenant.

The talks between Gores’ camp and the Ilitch family and their representatives center on the Pistons leaving the Palace for the $627.5 million Little Caesars Arena when it opens in September 2017 as home of the Ilitch-owned Detroit Red Wings.

The urgency to the talks has picked up because the new arena is less than a year from completion, and the Pistons’ needs for locker rooms and other facilities would be more cheaply addressed now rather than after the building is open.

Some of Gores’ partners and executives from his Beverly Hills, Calif.-based private equity firm Platinum Equity will join him Friday for the game, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. against the Orlando Magic.

A message seeking comment was left Tuesday night for the Ilitch family’s top spokesman.

Any Pistons relocation deal will require formal approvals from the National Basketball Association and Detroit’s Downtown Development Authority, which owns the new arena and must sign off on modifications to the facility — including any on-the-fly redesign to accommodate a basketball team.

Gores also is seeking land north of the new arena to build a Pistons practice and headquarters building, sources have told Crain’s.

Public acknowledgement of a handshake agreement to relocate the team is likely to precede disclosure of details of the formal deal, which is expected to take months to sort out. In addition to myriad questions such as revenue splits and scheduling, the talks are expected to address longer-term issues such as how longtime competitors Olympia and PS&E will co-exist — a joint venture overseeing all of their respective venues is an option — and possible cooperation on future local broadcast rights deals. In theory, the teams could jointly work out deals, along with the Ilitch-owned Detroit Tigers at nearby Comerica Park, or even form a new network.

The Ilitches’ Olympia Entertainment assets include the new arena, Comerica Park, and Fox and City theaters. Gores’ Palace Sports & Entertainment, which he bought along with the Pistons for $325 million in 2011, includes not only the Palace but also DTE Energy Music Theatre in Clarkston, and the contract to operate Meadow Brook Amphitheater in Rochester Hills on behalf of Oakland University. PS&E in November 2015 signed a contract to co-manage Freedom Hill Amphitheatre in Sterling Heights from Novi-based venue owner Luna Entertainment.

On Monday, Crain’s reported that Oakland County turned down a deal crafted by Gores’ camp that would have had the county pay $180 million for the Palace in return for $60 million in lease payments by the Pistons over 25 years.