Helene St. James

Detroit Free Press

They wanted the fear factor of Bell Centre, the openness of Amalie Arena, with a heavy dose of a unique experience.

During a special preview of Little Caesars Arena on Tuesday, held at nearby Comerica Park, president and CEO of Olympia Entertainment Tom Wilson led a group of media members on a tour highlighting LCA, which is scheduled to open for the 2017-18 season. Situated in the budding Detroit District, the inside of the arena was inspired by Montreal’s Bell Centre, considered one of the most intimidating arenas in the NHL because of the lack of outside light.

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“That became the model,” Wilson said. “It’s very steep — I mean, people are right on top of you. The difference is in Canada, there’s no leg room, and they don’t have ADA restrictions. So, we had to take all that into account, and even with that, this building is tighter than Montreal.”

New seats are 21 inches wide, compared to 17-18 at Joe Louis Arena.

“The lower level has 9,000 seats for hockey, 11,000 for basketball,” Wilson said. “The Joe has 6,000 in the lower level. So, as an average fan, my view is going to be much better — 3,000 more people are going to be closer to the action. And then the suites, we brought down to about 24 rows up, and there’s two levels of them.”

All 60 suites (with an average space of about 600 feet) sold out within 40 days. Most of the luxurious suites seat 30, hold 40, and feature five screens adaptable to PowerPoint presentations, a decision geared toward attracting businesses to bring clients there ahead of games. There are closets for coats, compartments to lock away bags, and two refrigerators.

The area includes an underground practice facility, a huge change considering that when there has been an event at the Joe, Wings players have had to do a “dress-and-drive” — dressing at the Joe, carpooling to Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett to hold practice there, then going back to the Joe.

Another appealing feature is an open-air plaza on the western side of the arena, where upward of 4,000 people will be able to mill about and watch whatever is on inside — a hockey game, a concert — on a large screen. That’s something that’s immensely popular next to Tampa Bay’s Amalie Arena.

Little Caesars Arena was built 37 feet into the ground because, after much discussion, nobody wanted the arena to tower like a sore thumb in the area. Instead, it lies tucked away behind facades of retails shops and apartment buildings in order to maintain a downtown feel.

Viewed in a model scale from above, it’d be easy to see how people could be coming down Woodward wondering, where is this brand new arena?

Contact Helene St. James: hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter@helenestjames. Check out our Red Wings Xtra app on Apple and Android!