Joe Louis Arena Tales!

Ron shares another unbelievable business story from the 1990s.

Back when Detroit Red Wings games at Joe Louis Arena were the hottest ticket in town, Ron invited several executives from one of Detroit’s Big Three automakers to a game in his company’s corporate suite. One executive and his wife were new to Detroit, and she was nervous about visiting downtown, so Ron personally promised to make sure they had a safe evening.

While Ron escorted the VP and his wife, team member Harry brought two executives known for their hard-partying ways. Before long, the pair started an argument with guests in the neighboring suite—rumored to be owned by the mafia. Ron quickly smoothed things over and switched hosting duties, asking Harry to take care of the VP and his wife.

When the game looked decided, the VP and his wife left early with Harry. An hour later, after the game ended, Ron headed to the parking garage and was stunned to find the VP and his wife still standing there—freezing cold and covered in icicles.

"Where's Harry?" Ron asked.

They pointed across the garage just as Harry ran by in a panic, yelling, “I can’t find my car! I can’t find my car!”

As Harry raced by yet again, the two intoxicated executives suddenly yelled, "There's his car!"

Having arrived with Harry earlier, they recognized it immediately.

Without hesitation, they took off running, tackled Harry before he could make another lap around the garage and finally reunited him with the vehicle he had been searching for all night.

Needless to say, that was the last time the VP and his wife went to Joe Louis Arena!

Just another legendary—and completely unbelievable—business-world adventure from Boomers on the Edge.

• Adult themes and language.
• Boomer rating: On the Edge.

https://www.boomersontheedge.com

boomers@boomersontheedge.com

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:02

Hey, and welcome to Boomers on the Edge. Some guys in their 60s who still think they're 60. Your hosts, Ken and Ron. Let's get started.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Hey Ron.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Thinking about when you were still in sales. Yes. And you used to take your customers out, entertain them. And there was that one episode or there was that one outing where you went downtown. Yeah, because this reminds you of it, doesn't it? Because it's like crazy. Kind of like a chase. Like it was nuts. Yeah, and you and you went to the Joe Lewis arena to see the wings. Yes. Yeah. Well, in the, you know, in those days in the 90s, that's when the wings were winning the Stanley Cup. Yeah, when Stevie Y was captain. Absolutely. Win some uh Stanley Cups. We had a booth or a you know, we had a suite at the top of the Joe Lewis Stan. In hockey town. In hockey town. And everybody wanted to go to those games. Of course, the customers wanted to go, everybody wanted to go. And so w one of your clients, one of your customers, one of your really good customers, uh asked. And didn't you take him and his wife? Yeah, well, we had a whole, like I say, the whole suite. And so you went in those days, everybody wanted to go to the games and they wanted to, you know, it was standing room only, quite frankly, because everybody wanted to go. But this one individual he But not in the suite. Oh no, in the suite, because there would have been a lot of people. Oh, standing room in the suite. Well, yeah, it would be so crowded. Oh, yeah. Food. It would be so crowded that you know how they have the seats in front of the suite. Yeah. There would be more people than could sit in those seats. So really full. Yeah, because I don't know how the tickets worked, but we seem to shove them all in there. But anyway, so the reason that's important is because there were a lot of people and it was a real happening. Okay. Yeah. This one guy, and he was a VP, uh, he was in charge of manufacturing uh for one of the big autos. And they him and his wife had just moved up here from Cincinnati and they were scared to death of Detroit. Oh yeah. Okay. They they were the types that didn't want to go downtown, they were scared of it. Uh but you assured them. I said to them, Look, I'll tell you what, I know you would love to see the wings. You know, they're in the playoffs and go down. I mean, we got it all, okay? Why don't you go with us? I will personally pick you up and guarantee your safety. Okay. And you don't even like going south at eight miles. Well, I didn't tell them that. Okay. And so they're like, I'll tell, I'll tell you what. Okay, Ron. You know what? We're going. We're going. So him and his wife, we'll call her Sally. You know, she had to have some reassurance. I think I ended up having to talk to her even. Okay. Yeah. They were so scared of going downtown that they were gonna go. So I picked them up, and then I ran a sales team at that time, and I had another guy, and we'll call him uh Harry. And so Harry, I had two guys, Bob and Harry. I picked up the customer, uh Sally, and his general manager, the vice president, as you said. Yeah, yeah, he was vice president. Yeah. Anyway, uh, I picked him up and Harry. Harry picked up uh these other guys from the same company who were kind of nuts and they didn't have their wives tagging along with them. Not by nuts, you mean they like to imbibe a little bit. That's key. So we both show up at the suite, and I pick these uh people up uh at their home and get them all down there. The evening's wearing on, and you got the food out and they're having a good time, and the booth But are the wings winning? Oh yeah, good, yeah. Matter of fact, and I don't remember what don't ask me what the score was. But yes, the wings did win that night, I recall that. But it was a good game and they were you know this the suite next door. I don't know if you've ever looked up at these uh stadiums, but you could literally stand and kind of touch the people in the next suite if you were up on the part where the seat was. Because it was just like the thickness of a wall. Yeah, there was like a little thing that went up, you know, you know, like uh 36 inches or something, and you know, that was the next suite over. Well, these two guys were so drunk and so crazy that they and that suite, the rumor was that that place was owned by the mafia. Okay. They always had Italian food. I'm sure they had Italian food, but but they always say the good stuff. They had girls, okay. The babies who didn't, you know, I don't know, they looked like not like your normal. They looked like hookers, but maybe that was their girlfriends. I don't know. I did watch the sopranos, you know. So so just picture the sopranos have the suite next door. Yeah, these dudes start messing with the girls, and they're saying crazy things about hey, babe, like those nails are so long, I bet you could itch multiple parts at the same time. You know what I'm saying? And then I'm like, oh man, and so then picture the sopranos start fighting with my customer, yeah, and and they're pushing each other over this 36-inch little barrier. And uh someone sounds like they might be flying off of the out of the suite. I thought a gun was gonna be pulled. So I'm like, okay, you you know what? You know what? Get away from them, okay? So I ended up having to take over the two nut cases, and I handed over Mr. and Mrs. Manufacturing to Harry. Okay. So that's key. And you're under customer control. Well, and they all work for the same company, so they were getting a little upset, like, why are they acting like that? But you know, anyway.

SPEAKER_00 5:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:57

So the evening wears on, and Mr. and Mrs. Manufacturing decide that it looks like the wings got it pretty much tied up. Time to go. You know, you know, they don't want to go too late out here in Detroit, you know. So, and it's I want to point out it's like I don't know when the end of the season is, but it's it's cold out. Okay. Really cold. It's very I don't know, you know hockey better than I do. When it when would uh winter play it? Winter, okay, whatever. It doesn't matter what month, but it was cold. That's key to this story. And wait, let me ask you a question. Yeah. How are the people dressed? Well, you know, people oh I'm assuming in those days. No, God. No, I mean they're going to a game, so they're business casual, you know, in those days, you know, little 80s. They're not wearing open-toed shoes or anything like that, the women. No, but they weren't, you know, they weren't dressed as either. Yeah, yeah, they were. Which is key to the story. They weren't wearing boots. Which is key to the story. So they came and they had a coat, they had on, and you know, so forth. So anyway, they decide they want to leave, and I'm kind of like, because I'm in charge, right? I'm still handling the two drunkards. Okay. Yeah. Harry still. You're directing traffic. I'll tell you what, I'll take Mr. and Mrs. Manufacturing home. Yeah. Which when you hear the end of the story, I'll be like, Sounded like a good point. Maybe I'll never do that again. Okay, there's a lesson to be learned here. Yeah. Because when you've promised somebody to do something, you might want to finish it. I said, okay, you do that, you take them, and then I'll take the two party boys. Okay. They leave, and I, you know, I don't know. Don't ask me how long into the last, what is it? Period. Period. Okay. There's like a whole period to go. I I swear to God, or like half a period. Okay. I don't know how long that takes. They leave. They're gone. Harry and the couple. Harry and you know, by the way, for the you know, public here, I don't even believe I don't know if we I don't even think we had cell phones. Okay. I really don't. No, it would have been early. So it's early 90s. I don't know if we if we had them, they weren't very, they were like bag phones in your car. They leave, they're gone. Oh, thank God. I don't know. Isn't it quite a walk? They go, but so what you have to do is you have to walk to the parking structure and you know where your car is parked and everybody. It wasn't valet service. No, no, we didn't do that. They leave, and I mean they've been gone a long time, okay? And at least a half hour more than that. And so finally the game ends. Oh boy. And the two drunkards are with me, and they're like, I'm like, come on, come on. Okay, I'll tell you what. Time to go. I'll get you home. I know Harry brought you Harry, Harry's my man. I'm like, you know, wow. Did you see those chicks with those fingernails? Let's not go there again, okay? I really don't want to scratch the. Believe me, people think this is fun taking these people out. It's not, okay. So we're walking, and then everybody they're commenting on everybody as we're walking. So we have to walk. I don't know if anybody's ever been to the Joe Lewis Arena. It had like habit trail tunnels to the tunnel, to the parking lot. So you leave the you leave the stadium. Yeah, thanks. Help me out. You go and then you have to go through this like habit trail tunnel over uh you know, multiple lane freeway, like four lanes both ways. It's like a race. So it's quite a ways just to get to the other parking structure. So just picture, especially for people who've ever been there, picture that you're going over the habit trail tunnel, it's freezing out. It's I'm kidding you, not kidding you, it's like in the 20s, easy, okay. Oh, wind chill probably was. It's freezing out, okay. I open the door from the habit trail to the garage. I'm not making this up. It's like you'd see in a movie. And you know how in the movies, when you see somebody like a close-up picture of somebody's face, and there's like like icicles coming down, like icicles coming down from their face, and like all I see in my mind, and it's to this day stuck in my head, stared, these gigantic faces of Mr. and Mrs. Manufacturing standing right in front of me with icicles all down their face, going, I'm like, those people, man, Sally, man, what's going on?

SPEAKER_00 10:08

Why are you here? The people you you personally promised you would take care of. We're freezing, we're freezing. I go, where's Harry? They go, he keeps running around, and he's pointing.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

You know how the you know how the uh parking structure has like the little like you can see where it goes on angles where he leveled the level. Yeah, yeah. You see him right then running, running by. He's running by. And they're going, he just keeps running around. I can't find my car. I can't find my car.

SPEAKER_00 10:41

I can't find my car. And now the drunkards are going, I know.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

I know where this car is. I know where it is, and I swear to God. It's like right there.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

They point, they go, there it is.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

And oh my god to floor. He's trying to he's totally panic, weirded out because he couldn't find his car. Okay. And he's nuts. And I and then the two drunkard guys, they're like, they go, I'll get him.

SPEAKER_00 11:19

Like they're running after him, and they grab him when he comes by, and I'm like, what is wrong with you? Calm down. Calm down. Calm down. Oh they said the car's right here.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

Oh so I'm just thinking the next time you had to make a sales pitch to this game. So I think I think I s I don't remember. I think I took them then. I don't remember. There was a there was a handoff. I don't remember if I took them back. You had to do the apology tour. Oh god, oh my god. The next day, and they were, I'm not making this crap up. They were like, they're shaking and shivering, yeah, and like uh, and and the next day I had to go and apologize to him in the off, like in his office. Yeah, oh my god, was he yelling at me? And you know, what kind of fools and unprofessionals that you are, and and and my wife almost froze, and she's never gonna go to Detroit again, and I would never buy anything from such a loser organization. And the poor guy who did it, okay, because I'm gonna this would be Harry. Yeah, Harry, he never lived it down, like within the sales world in the in the local office. It it was legendary like legend. Like, did you hear about he lost it and he was running around and one of the drunkards had to grab him as he was like going in circles, he's going in circles, and he kept going, I can't find my car, I can't find my car, I can't find my car. It's like he just panicked, okay. And I he never lived that down so bad that he left. Oh, he left the company, okay. Yeah, it was bad. I wonder if that general manager, or I mean the vice president. Yeah, I wonder if he got a little action that night. I think Oh, he was a popsicle, he couldn't. I think that's on his three worst things he ever did list. I think he's like, he's like his wife was thinking it will be fun. Like, it's safe down there. I know it's Detroit, but it will be fun. Instead, he'll personally assure us and guarantee our safety. And he's a great guy. Yeah, he's fantastic, he's very reliable. I'd like so if if there's a a story to be told here, I learned that day. When you make a promise, you finish it yourself. You follow it. Even if you're the boss and you have underlings, yeah. I had promised those people I would take them. And the last thing I expected was to see them having been freezing for like an hour or something. Oh my gosh. It was unbelievable. It was unbelievable. Well, one of the worst customer experiences I've ever had, personally, honestly. But the most important thing is that the wings won. No, the most important thing would have been if we would have won a deal, but I don't think we did on that one. I think we lost. So, anyways, you guys, thanks for listening. Yep, thanks a lot. Hey, thanks for joining us here on Boomers on the Edge. We hope you'll join us again. And until then, have a great time. Thank you.