Cover Image Credit: Logopedia

If recent tradition holds true, the NBA will soon announce its city of choice for the 2028 All Star Game. It was March of last year when the NBA announced that Phoenix, Arizona would host the 2027 game and weekend of festivities. 

The NBA All Star Game offers highly coveted economic stimulus for its host city. For example, according to a study by the Temple University Sports Industry Research Center, the 2024 NBA All Star weekend “delivered more than $403 million in economic value to Indianapolis and central Indiana,” per NBA.com. The study also estimates that the game and its related events created or expanded 1,800 local jobs. 

The build up to the event and weekend of festivities also makes the host city an epicenter of popular culture. For the 2025 game in San Francisco, California, celebrities such as chef Guy Fieri, actor/comedian Kevin Hart and singer Jennifer Hudson all attended weekend events. 

Detroit should be selected to host the 2028 NBA All Star Game. It has an NBA franchise that could be competing for a championship in the coming seasons, led by 2025 All Star Cade Cunningham. 

The city has proven it can attract a crowd. 

Last year, Detroit set the record for NFL Draft attendance, at 775,000 people, as reported by The Detroit News. TV viewership for the Detroit Lions, over 10 nationally televised games, this past season, was the best in the NFL, at an average of 22.65 million viewers per game. 

The NBA All Star game could use the boost Detroit can provide. TV ratings for the 2025 game were down 13 percent from the previous year, continuing a troubling trend of decline since 2020, and TV ratings league wide are down 5 percent year over year. 

For their part, the Pistons are generating home attendance of 18,737 people per game, on average, per ESPN, 10th in the NBA. Fans in Detroit are paying attention to their team and would support a high profile game in their city. Detroit loves sports, and the city is on the rise. 

The City of Detroit can support world-class travel. Detroit has more than 5,300 hotel rooms, and another 11,000 hotel rooms are available in nearby suburbs Novi and Pontiac. According to U.S. News & World Report, there are 15 four-star, luxury hotels serving the city that are rated eight out of 10 or higher by guest reviews. 

Major sports leagues often like to showcase new arenas and stadiums as locations for championship and all star games. Detroit is overdue. 

Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena, home of the Pistons, was opened in 2017. The $862.9 million arena was funded through a public-private partnership, demonstrating the commitment of taxpayers, elected officials, sports team owners and the business community to Detroit’s resurgence and local sports. 

Speaking of overdue, Detroit has played host to the NBA All Star game twice before, but not since Michael Jackson’s first album as an adult topped the charts in 1979. His best songs that year? “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” and “Rock with You.” 

The NBA needs the mojo Motown brings. Detroit has the momentum of a city on the rise. 

Employment is on the rise in 2025, and the trend is expected to continue to 2029, according to analysis in an independent report published in The Detroit News. Wages are expected to rise through 2029, as well, per the report. 

Violent crime “continued to plummet at historic rates,” a 19 percent decline in 2024, according to government and community leaders. This is the lowest rate since 1965. 

Detroit has a world-class convention center. Huntington Place is 2.4 million square feet. This includes 723,000 square feet of exhibit space, 225,000 square feet of meeting space and 200,000 square feet of flex space. 

Visitors to Detroit can fly in from nearly anywhere in the world. Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport has flights from more than 125 nonstop destinations and 800 flights per day to and from three continents. The airport is used by 31 million passengers per year. 

The NBA and Detroit make a good match. 

For the 2023/2024 season, revenue for the Detroit Pistons was $305 million, an 11 percent increase from the previous year and a record high dating back to 2001, according to Statista. 

Let’s keep a good thing going. 

The NBA should showcase its best talent of 2028 in Detroit by awarding the city its All Star game. 

The timing is right. 

The city is ready.