June 28, 2010
Philly soccer team debuts new stadium amid dusk-to-dawn curfew
The Philadelphia Union opened their new stadium in Chester yesterday, and by most accounts a fun time was had by all.
As for what Chester itself is getting for its $77 million in public funding (split between the state and county), opening day didn't provide much positive evidence:
Obert Burchell runs a small Jamaican jerk chicken restaurant on Route 291, not far from the new soccer stadium. On Sunday his place was empty. He says business has been dropping for two weeks.
"Very dramatically man," says Burchell. "All we do here is play cards. Food on the stove — nobody come in to buy."
Of course, it doesn't help that half the city is under a 9-p.m.-to-6-a.m. curfew after a series of shootings earlier this month. A curfew that, despite what many residents believe, Chester's mayor insists has nothing at all to do with making visitors to the new soccer stadium feel safe.
February 02, 2010
Philly MLS stadium to be named for electric company
The home of the new Philadelphia Union MLS team starting play in 2011 this spring will be named for Pennsylvania Power and Light, in a deal worth a reported $20 million over 10 years. If you're wondering why an electric utility needs to buy a giant billboard, it probably has something to do with the fact that Pennsylvania just deregulated its electricity markets starting January 1. Now, on top of 30% rate hikes, PPL customers get to help foot the bill for their electricity company's soccer-stadium ad campaign to convince people that name recognition is more important than those 30% rate hikes.
Of course, the Pennsylvania legislators who voted for electricity deregulation couldn't have seen this coming, because it's not like anything like this has ever happened before.
July 28, 2009
When budget crisis hits, cut supermarkets, not stadiums
With the Pennsylvania state budget headed into the crapper, the impoverished Philadelphia suburb of Chester is still getting its $115 million soccer stadium, it looks like &mdash just not the supermarket that was supposed to come with it:
Up to $4 million was earmarked for the store last year, at the insistence of state Rep. Thaddeus Kirkland.
"That was part of the deal," said Johnna Pro, spokeswoman for state House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dwight Evans. "The supermarket [funding] was part of the whole soccer-stadium deal."
But Gov. Rendell decides what money is dispersed from the capital budget, and his office has been noncommittal.
"There are more projects listed in the capital budget than can possibly be funded," Rendell spokesman Chuck Ardo said yesterday, as legislators remained locked in a budget stalemate.
Not that giving public money to retail outlets is usually that good an idea, either — it typically just shuffles spending around from one store to another — but you could make a case that Delaware County could really use some better ones than they have currently.
January 06, 2009
Chester stadium finance still up in the air?
They've already broken ground for the soccer stadium in Chester, PA, but in this economy, a lot of development projects are ending up just holes in the ground. So it drew attention - okay, attention from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, for some reason - when Nick Sakiewicz, owner of the as-yet-unnamed Philadelphia expansion MLS team that would play there, said Thursday, "We're not even sure the stadium is going to be built. If the [financial] markets tank next month, then we won't build this thing. We'll be out $15 million and everyone goes home."
Friday, Sakiewicz hurriedly backed away from those comments, telling the Delaware County Daily Times, "The market's fine. We feel that we're in pretty good shape. Every day's a new day, but today we feel pretty good about it." So expect the stadium to go forward, so long as we're not headed into a Second Great Depression or anything. Oh, wait.