The Red Wings' new arena drew the attention of on using public funds to finance profe sional sports venues in America. Oliver said it was "a little hard to swallow" that taxpayer money in exce s of $280 million would be spent on the project despite the city of Detroit filing for Chapter 9 bankruptcy in 2013, adding that Red Wings owner Mike Ilitch is worth an estimated $5.1 Kurt Suzuki Jersey billion. MORE: | One of hockey's most iconic franchises responded by releasing this statement ( ): "This project is about so much more than a world-cla s sports and entertainment arena; it's about transforming a core part of our city for the benefit of the entire community. The new Detroit arena and The District Detroit will create 8,300 construction and construction-related jobs, as well as at least 1,100 permanent jobs. To date, the Detroit Downtown Development Authority has approved nine contracts worth $121 million, of which Detroit-based and -headquartered busine ses have won more than 88% or $106 million. Initiatives of this size, scope and impact $1.8 billion dollars for our city, region and state are almost universally public-private partnerships. The majority of this development is being privately financed, and no City of Detroit general funds are involved whatsoever." The Free Pre s confirmed thatthe city's general fund isn't involved, but the project is 58 percent publicly financed. Griffin Canning Jersey