By naming the new home of the Detroit Red Wings the Little Caesars Arena, the Ilitch family that owns both the team and the pizza company may have foregone a multimillion-dollar source of cash from an outside bidder. But that's OK, said Christopher Ilitch, CEO of the family's Ilitch Holdings.
"For our organization, this is more than just about money," Ilitch told the media and assorted guests at an event Thursday inside the arena construction site where he announced the new name. "This is our hometown. This is a legacy business," he said, referring to how his parents, Mike and Marian Ilitch, opened their first Little Caesars store in suburban Detroit in 1959.