Well, your getting a little bit of bad information there. I believe with tonights game they've sold out 10 of 18 home games. The arena holds a little over 19,000 without the SRO tickets. If you look here http://www.sportsline.com/nhl/teams/schedule/DET
You'll see their attendance has been around 95% or better all season so far. Sales wise. The city is in a shambles financially. The auto industry is a huge part of Detroit and Michigan of course and the unemployment rate is the worst in the country. Tickets here arn't cheap as you would expect for an original 6 team that has won 4 cups of late. You used to not even be able to go because the waiting list for tickets was in such demand. I can remember hearing a 5 year waiting list as little as 10 years ago. People just don't have the extra cash to go see a game on a regular basis like you used to.
As for the Pistons, Detroit is a huge sports town and all the teams are supported well. Even the Lions. The city of Detroit has a black population of over 85% so the Pistons are naturally going to be a popular team even though they are the only team of the big 4 that we have that plays their home games in the suburbs. So yes...I think your getting a little bad information.
