Detroit’s Legendary Olympia Stadium: 1927-1987

Detroit’s legendary Olympia Stadium is no more.....it’s been gone since 1987. For close to 60 years, the Olympia was a major venue for sports events and rock concerts.

According to Historic Detroit, it all began on May 15, 1926 when Charlie Hughes rounded up some Detroit businessmen and bought the Victoria Cougars hockey team. The team was renamed the Detroit Cougars. But the problem was – there was no place for them to play. While the team had to find a place in Canada to play in the interim, construction started on a place of their own on the corner of Grand River and McGraw.

The events began in October 1927 with an eight-day rodeo. Afterward, the first of many boxing matches drew over 15,000 people. The first hockey game played by the Cougars was on November 22.

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With the successes of the boxing matches and rodeo, more events followed: basketball, bicycle racing, circuses, and wrestling.

James Norris bought Olympia Stadium in 1932 for $100,000 and soon re-named the hockey team. Taking his cue from a team he used to play for as a kid, he adopted the logo of a winged wheel, once used by the Montreal Winged Wheelers. The team implemented the new logo, and the Red Wings were hatched.

Olympia’s reputation exploded in the 1950s and 60s when the stadium began hosting rock concerts. After a few other music appearances, the first rock show took place on May 6, 1956 with Bo Diddley.

The floodgates were now open, and more and more concerts were booked:

Who Were Some of the Performers Who Appeared at Olympia Stadium?

Beach Boys, Beatles, David Bowie, Johnny Cash, Alice Cooper, Cream, ELO, Jethro Tull, Elton John, Kiss, Led Zeppelin, MC5, Monkees, Moody Blues, Pink Floyd,  Elvis Presley, Rolling Stones, Frank Zappa and many others. The final concert was performed by Santana on Dec 29, 2023.

What Kicked off Olympia Stadium's Decline?

By 1975, with the nearby Detroit neighborhoods deteriorating and becoming abandoned, the Red Wings began their decline as well. They played their final Olympia Stadium appearance on Dec. 15, 1979, and soon moved to their new home at Joe Louis Arena. In September 2017 they moved again, this time to Little Caesar’s Arena.

The Olympia stood abandoned and decaying for eight years until it was all torn down in 1987.

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