Speaking of Quicken, Gilbert promised yet again a decision in two months, and he officially ruled out Cleveland:
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Detroit Free Press
Cavaliers' owner sticks with Michigan
June 6, 2007
BY TOM WALSH
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
There's good news about the Cleveland Cavaliers bouncing the Detroit Pistons out of the National Basketball Association playoffs.
It's great for marketing, visibility and talent recruitment at Quicken Loans and Rock Financial, the Livonia-based mortgage firms founded by metro Detroit native Dan Gilbert, who spent part of his Quicken/Rock fortune to buy the Cavs franchise in March 2005.
And despite Cleveland going totally gaga over the Cavs this year, Gilbert has no intention of moving the Quicken/Rock headquarters and its 5,000 employees to Cleveland, he told the Free Press in an interview Tuesday.
"That's not reality," he said. "It's just not easy to move four or five thousand people from one city to another, I don't care if it's Honolulu or wherever."
Gilbert is indeed looking for a new headquarters site to accommodate his growing mortgage business, but look for it to remain in southeast Michigan. He said Tuesday that he expects to choose a location -- sites in Detroit and various suburbs have been studied -- within the next 60 days.
Meanwhile, Gilbert, 45, is enjoying early success as an NBA owner in only his second full season running the Cavs.
Immediately after assuming control, Gilbert changed the name of the former Gund Arena to Quicken Loans Arena, or the Q for short, and fired the team's coach and general manager, replacing them with Mike Brown and Danny Ferry, respectively.
"We had to get a strong core belief system in place, and when we hired Mike and Danny, who are great people, we knew they'd bring in more great people," Gilbert said.
One thing Gilbert didn't change -- and spent big to retain with a 3-year contract extension last summer -- was the team's superstar, LeBron James.
James, fast becoming the marquee face of the NBA at age 22, was the most important person -- though certainly not the only one -- Gilbert had to convince that Cleveland could become a top-flight NBA franchise after 37 years of futility.
"Dan does everything first class," said Tom Wilson, president and chief executive officer of Palace Sports & Entertainment, whose Detroit Pistons franchise was a model for how Gilbert has molded the Cavs.
"Not every new owner comes in and spends eight figures on the area, comes in and changes the team colors, installs the biggest scoreboard in the league. He has reinvented the business dramatically."
Other changes in Cleveland: The team is building a new $25-million practice facility and is piloting an electronic ticketing system called Flash Seats that could become a model for other teams and entertainment venues.
On the court, Coach Brown molded the Cavs into pesky defenders, exhorting his players to keep "pounding the rock," Gilbert said. That enabled the team to rise to a level beyond just the talent of one superstar. That emphasis on defense is a trait of all great teams, Gilbert said.
"The Pistons and San Antonio Spurs are the best two franchises to emulate in terms of philosophy," Gilbert said. "So it's probably no accident that we have to go through them both to win the whole thing."
A key element of Gilbert's corporate philosophy is that all parts of his far-flung business network are interconnected and benefit each other.
That's an easy concept to grasp among the core companies. Quicken Loans is the nation's leading Internet mortgage lender. Rock Financial also is a mortgage lender, but from a traditional bricks-and-mortar platform of offices in Michigan. Title Source provides title insurance for mortgage transactions.
Ownership of a sports team takes what Gilbert calls the interconnecting "threads" or "tentacles" further afield.
As part of its incentive and reward programs, Quicken/Rock frequently runs a bus -- called the Q Express -- for the ride from Livonia to Cleveland for Cavs games, concerts or other events. Meanwhile, Rock Financial continues its longtime affiliation with the Pistons as a major advertising sponsor.
Gilbert believes that the same high-intensity, high-performance, high-reward culture that he has instilled at Quicken/Rock will produce good results in virtually any business, from pro basketball to mortgages to Fathead brand vinyl wall graphics, another business Gilbert bought recently.
"It's not about what you do, it's about who you are," Gilbert said.
Watch out, San Antonio. Dan Gilbert and the Q Express -- and oh, yeah, LeBron James -- are headed straight at you.
Contact TOM WALSH at 313-223-4430 or
twalsh@freepress.com.
Copyright © 2007 Detroit Free Press Inc.