Will Bad Bunny play the Wells Fargo Center on Friday? Or will Joel Embiid?
The Bad Bunny concert scheduled for Friday would have to be rescheduled if the Sixers lose on Wednesday. Here's why.
Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican rapper who is one of the most popular music acts in the world, is scheduled to play the Wells Fargo Center in South Philadelphia on Friday.
It’s a stop on the artist born Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio’s “Most Wanted Tour” and is set to be his first appearance in Philadelphia since headlining the Made in America festival in September 2022.
But will Bad Bunny actually be performing at the Wells Fargo Center on Friday? Or will Joel Embiid be playing there instead?
Embiid and the Sixers might need to use the building, it turns out. And whether they do depends on how the team’s postseason efforts proceed this week.
Here’s why. The 76ers finished in a three-way tie with the Orlando Magic and Indiana Pacers in NBA Eastern Conference standings with identical 47-35 records. In the NBA’s complicated and perhaps unjust (to the Sixers) tie breaking process, the Sixers finish third among these three teams. That pushes the Nick Nurse-coached squad back to seventh place in the East.
What’s that got to do with Bad Bunny, who’s on tour in support of his 2023 album Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana? Because the team finished seventh — a result that wasn’t known until Sunday afternoon — the Sixers will play the Miami Heat on Wednesday in a playoff “play-in” game. If they win, their position in the playoffs is firmed-up and they’ll have Friday off.
But if the Sixers lose on Wednesday, they’ll have to play at home again on Friday, this time against either the Atlanta Hawks or Chicago Bulls. And if the Sixers are filling up the Wells Fargo Center, when can Bad Bunny perform there?
How about Thursday?
A quick look at Bad Bunny’s tour schedule reveals that he’s playing Boston on Wednesday and Hartford on Saturday. On Thursday, he’s free for a potentially rescheduled show in Philadelphia.
Rumors that the arena’s schedule would be shuffled began to circulate online Monday morning. One Bad Bunny fan who asked not to be named and had booked a suite for the concert told The Inquirer that the Sixers had already informed them that the concert had been moved to Thursday.
Representatives for Live Nation, which booked the Bad Bunny concert, did not respond to requests for comment. A Wells Fargo Center representative also did not comment.
However, on Monday afternoon, callers to the Sixers ticket office were told that if the team beats the Heat on Wednesday, the Bad Bunny concert will not be moved. But if the Sixers lose to the Heat, that the Bad Bunny concert would be moved up a day until Thursday.
Music fans who want to spend their Friday with Bad Bunny rather than having to rearrange their plans and go a day early, better chant these three words during Wednesday’s Philadelphia-Miami game: Let’s go Sixers!