Please Put What You Can In The Hat The Ushers Are Passing Around...

I don't know how many Wings fans know that Marian Illitch also owns Motor City Casino, one of the three casinos in Detroit. But this item that crossed the Bloomberg wires bears mentioning...

Marian Ilitch, the owner of the National Hockey League’s Detroit Red Wings, is facing calls from lenders to pump more money into her MotorCity Casino or pay an almost sixfold increase in interest as gambling revenue falls.

[snip]

“If they don’t get the amendment, they could be in default,” said Keith Foley, a Moody’s analyst in New York. “The amendment is something that they need."

Three things worth mentioning:

• This is the first time I've ever seen Marian Illitch identified as the "owner" of the Red Wings. If you go to the Wings Front Office page, both Mike and Marian Illitch are identified as "owners" versus "co-owners." I'm pretty sure I knew that fact to be technically true, but I have to confess that I had to read that first sentence twice.
  
• While technically two different companies hold MotorCity (CCM Merger Inc.) and the Wings (Olympia Entertainment), I can tell you from a loving, caring marital perspective that it'd be like me saying that I own my house, and my wife pays to live there: I can show you all the legal documentation that backs that statement, but I'd still come home to find the locks had mysteriously been changed and my clothes are now sitting on the front porch.
• This, I'm sure, is just what the NHL loves to read: one of their flagship franchise's owners is effectively under a margin call.