It’s Tuesday morning, and here’s what we know about the plans for a joint Philadelphia 76ers–Flyers arena in South Philly:
- Sixers owners Harris Blitzer and Flyers owners Comcast Spectacor have entered into a “binding agreement” to go halfsies on a new arena to replace the Wells Fargo Center, which Comcast owns (and recently renovated) and Sixers rent. The new arena, which doesn’t yet have an announced price tag, is planned to open in 2031.
- The two companies will also work together on the “revitalization” of the Market East site near Chinatown that the Sixers had previously targeted for a new arena of their own.
- Comcast will buy a minority stake in the Sixers, and will get full ownership of the naming rights to the new arena.
- The Flyers owners will join the Sixers owners in seeking a WNBA team to play in the new arena.
- Mayor Cherelle Parker called this development a “win, win, win, win for Philadelphia” and a “curveball that none of us saw coming” and “exciting” and “unprecedented” and “a celebration for the city” and said as the city’s “CEO, I don’t have the luxury of wallowing in this 180.”
- Parker said the city will still spend $20 million on affordable housing initiatives in Chinatown, though it sounds like the $50 million in community benefits promised by Harris as part of his original arena deal is now kaput.
All this still leaves a lot of questions: What will the “revitalization” at Market East look like, and will it still be eligible for the property tax breaks that were approved for the previously planned arena? What will the previously announced arena district in South Philly look like, when will it be built, and will Comcast and Harris seek any tax breaks or public infrastructure money for that? Who’s paying who for what in all these new cross-ownership deals, and how certain is it that any of these new plans will come to fruition? (City councilmember Mark Squilla, who played a key role in approving the now-suddenly-dead Market East arena plan, said when asked how he knows the new arena will actually happen, “I mean, you don’t. I mean, they say their commitment is there, there’s a little trust building that needs to be done.”)
In an editorial late yesterday afternoon, the Philadelphia Inquirer called the last four years spent on the Market East arena plans “a giant waste of time and money for everyone.” That’s not quite true: It was clearly time and money well spent for the Sixers owners, who were able to use the threat of their own arena to get Comcast to the table to work out this new deal. Whether it can now really be a “win, win, win, win” for the city, Sixers, Flyers, and whoever else Parker had in mind is going to depend on a lot of details that are currently unknown; once the excited press conferences die down and we start seeing financial details, we’ll know better who exactly got played here, and for what.
Just to connect all the dots, speculation on some architecture and development website is that this happened because billionaire Josh Harris now has a pathway to build a Commanders stadium in the District of Columbia and doesn’t have the funds on hand to do both that and the Sixers arena, and because Comcast made their renewed pitch for a joint Flyers-Sixers arena at the opportune time. As my boss always says, you can almost always get to a YES if you ask at the right time
Do you have a link to that site? That first scenario seems unlikely: Harris and Blitzer have a combined net worth of around $15 billion, and could always just go to a bank and take out loans if both a Commanders stadium and a Sixers arena both looked like money-making investments.
Billionaires don’t get to be billionaires by spending their own money.
People make it sound like Market East is a desolate hellhole. It’s not that at all. That end of Market St was once lined with department stores. It’s going to take politicians and developers with vision to transition it for the 21th Century, so I’m not holding my breath. When the Gallery/Fashion District was first built, it was considered visionary because no one was investing in cities. Unfortunately, it hasn’t aged well.
The reason that people “make it sound” that way is because that is EXACTLY WHAT IT HAS BECOME!
Because of Philly’s “councilmanic prerogative” laws, developers are required to pay millions to “community development” groups. Any lawyer will gladly explain that these “legal kickbacks” are not actually kickbacks because they are legal.
As a result, developers are usually unwilling to build without receiving taxpayer subsidies from the politicians. Any lawyer will gladly explain that these “legal bribes” are not actually bribes because they are legal.
Note that not even hospitals, churches, and other nonprofits are exempt from these “councilmanic prerogative” laws.
When was the last time you walked around Market East? I was just there last spring, and while it wasn’t crazy bustling, it was far from a hellhole.
People who describe cities as “hellholes” are not worth engaging with.
Right on, Al!
And developers typically try to demand taxpayer subsidies regardless of whether they need to buy off local elected officials. It’s free money, so why not ask for it whether you need it or not?
I’m flattered to have Neil deMause respond to my comment, thank you sir!
I still go there often for shopping at Reading Terminal and church at Saint John’s. The last time was about three weeks ago.
I stay away from Market Street other than walking to the El station, there’s nothing there for me.
Last summer I stayed overnight for a wedding (Hilton 12th Street just off Market). After dark the ghouls took over the streets. The desk clerk warned people not to walk near the hotel at night if they wanted to be safe.
For anyone wondering, “ghouls” is a personal attack, but allowed unless there are any commenters here who ever walk on Market Street after dark — in which case, please speak up and let me know.
I remember when Market Street from 7th Street to City Hall was a shopper’s paradise. People actually came in from the suburbs (after they “GOT DRESSED UP”) to shop there. During the holiday season they dressed up their kids and brought them along.
Beginning in the 60s things changed, when Philadelphia’s government collectively decided that criminal behavior was not the root cause of street crime.
Now there is plenty of non-subsidized development in all of the counties that surround Philadelphia.
I guess shopping districts closed in every other city in the country around the same time also because of the shortsightedness of Philadelphia’s government?
Could also use some help parsing “criminal behavior is the cause of crime.” Anyone?
I don’t know why you would make such a guess, certainly not because of anything I said.
You said that Philadelphia’s shopping district emptied out in the 1960s because of Philly city government’s attitudes toward crime. Every other U.S. city’s downtown shopping districts emptied out at the same time — the sensible answer is that something was going on nationwide that caused this, but maybe you have another explanation?
Saint John’s Church on 13th Street near Market has been a part of the Market East community since 1830. This weekend a thief broke through the stained-glass windows and literally stole the crown from the Blessed Mother’s head.
This criminal sacrilege was barely noticed by the Philly media or city officials. Mayor Cherelle Parker had no comment on the matter.
I’m just saying.
Your statement “every other U.S. city’s downtown shopping districts emptied out at the same time” is not correct.
The accurate sentence “criminal behavior is the cause of crime” has the standard parsing (adjective, subject, verb, object).
I apologize for using the word “ghouls.” It won’t happen again.
You won the debate, I lost the debate. Your website your rules, I concede defeat.
The last word is all yours.
Nah, I think you expressed your position clearly enough that I don’t feel the need to comment.
The ultimate causes of street crime are inequality and desperation. This is well-established.
For example:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0047235223000363
More immediately, I think there is evidence – or at least, it stands to reason – that places that are mostly empty, especially at night, are susceptible to muggers and thieves because there are so few potential witnesses around. Those kinds of ghost town areas certainly feel scarier than areas with a lot going on.
And I agree that we, as a civilization, need a new vision for how to develop cities that cannot depend on the activities that used to happen in many of those areas, including big retail.
But the loss of any of that is not because of any particular city council. Some neighborhoods
might be further ahead than others in the process of reinventing themselves, but it is a continent-wide problem, impacting small towns as well as cities.
I understand the romantic appeal of the old department stores or even the 80’s style malls replete with an Orange Julius and Chess King. But those are not coming back.
But the market shows that a lot of
people still want to live in cities if they could afford to. So the focus has to be on building those residential neighborhoods.
A mayor marketing themselves as the “CEO” of their city is always a great sign that they’re prepared to negotiate subsidies for private businesses, and certainly won’t be readily bamboozled by the MBA-types sitting across the table. /s
This isn’t quite as suspiciously impulsive as the A’s peripatetic stumbling through multiple sites in Oakland, but it’s close. I find it hard to imagine that in 20 years’ time, anyone involved will be happy with the logistics and costs of continually transitioning the building back and forth between hockey and basketball.
The costs of building two separate arenas are immensely greater than the costs of basketball/hockey transitioning.
New York and Boston have been transitioning their buildings that way for 100 years. Philly has been doing it for over 50. It is not that expensive or difficult. It just requires insulation between the floor and the ice.
The technology has improved a lot and will probably only get better. We don’t see condensation on the basketball floor like we used to.
Call me skeptical, but I think the 76ers were a stalking horse all along for Comcast to get the city’s best offer to keep the teams in Philly. Watch the deal for replacing Wells Fargo Center get the same public subsidies of tax break and improvements to the Sports Complex subway station.
After the new arenas is built, wouldn’t surprise me if Comcast sells the building and the Flyers’ to Harris group after he sells the Devils. Then if the Eagles get a new retractable roof stadium to open in ’33, maybe Harris buys them from Lurie – now that the RFK transfer bill when through and the Commanders will get a new stadium in a couple of years at the site of RFK stadium.
So by 2033 in a nice tied up bow, Harris has new venues for the SIxers, Flyers and Eagles built by others, subsidized by Philadelphia after he gets a new stadium in DC to make the Commanders more valuable and he can unload them and the Devils in exchange for owning the Eagles, Flyers, Sixers and WNBA team. He makes money on the Market East redevelopment – or unloads it to get in on the Phillies-Comcast Sports Complex development deal. And Comcast makes a ton of money sell a stadium, an NHL team while still getting richer off developing the areas around the complex.
At the risk of sounding ghoulish, I doubt I will be around to see all of these wonderful arena/stadia come to fruitition. The billionaires will be richer, the city coffers emptier and the taxpayer sweating.
That’s a lot of moving parts in not much time…none of the outdoor stadiums got done in PA without heavy state involvement, which won’t happen unless Western PA gets a taste.
This is Philly, things take time.
Plenty of outdoor stadiums have been built without heavy state involvement. It’s only since the Rendell administration that things have changed.
You’re going to need to show your work here. What outdoor stadiums are you talking about?
I’m not sure why people are so confident Harris is getting a DC stadium. That’s a really long complicated process, and the deal involved MD taking over the DC National Guard but the military is furious…this could unravel.
EVEN if not, this just allows DC to redevelop, an arena plan itself is years away.
Why wouldn’t Harris just use DC like he used Chinatown to get a better deal in MD or VA?
You’re correct, Harris will use D.C. to get a better deal if it benefits him. He will also use Md. and Va. for the same reason. It wouldn’t even surprise me if he uses all three to get a better deal somewhere else (San Diego, Utah, Austin, etc.).
Because DC is the best location for the stadium and DC has shown it can be convinced to offer good deals to sports owners.
But if that fails, Maryland and Virginia can be played too. There are lots of choices.
The Commanders are not leaving that area. It is one of the largest and richest metro regions in the world. The NFL owners will not abandon that area.
NFC East team to Utah, Utah Football Club, rival to Dallas, Philly and New York? Good joke. The odds that San Diego will enter a bidding war are slim to none. No way would Jerry Jones allow an NFL team in Central Texas, that’s his territory.
Collectively, the NFL does not have much incentive to expand in the US. There is nowhere they could put a team that would noticeably improve their national TV and sponsorship revenue, which is 2/3 of teams’ revenues.
Local revenue does matter a lot to individual owners, but there really is no major relocation move (I mean, leaving one whole media market for another) that any owner could make that would be an obvious upgrade.
All of the major markets and a few of the minor ones have teams. The NFL is probably as popular as it could ever possibly be, not just nationwide, but in every region. There are no worlds left to conquer.
Certainly, none of the big market teams would benefit from moving. Even if there is absolutely no public money available in the DC area for a team and SLC, Austin, Greensboro or whatever is offering a free stadium, it might still make economic sense to stay in the DC area. I suspect the demand for PSLs in a new Commanders stadium will be strong, especially if they can maintain momentum on the field.