Sixers abandon Center City arena plan; plan to build new stadium in South Philly with Comcast Spectacor

Walking down Spring St., Helen Chen felt defeated about the prospect of a Sixers arena in Chinatown. She was in shock upon learning about the project falling through.

“It makes me really happy that [the stadium] isn't gonna be here, particularly for the elders,” Chen said. “So many Have been going through this really really disastrous aftermath of arenas and stadiums being built in the middle of the community for so long.”

But as fast as happiness stroke, doubt soon took over, as the 20-year-old wonder what would be build instead of the stadium.

Still wearing his black kitchen apron, Derek Sam, known as Sam Sam, stood in the middle of his restaurant Little Saigon Cafe, moving his hands up and down with emotion.

“I feel relief; I feel great; they mess our life here in Chinatown for 2.5 years,” Sam said with a cheesing smile.

One of the faces at the front of the anti-arena protest since the arena’s plans began, Sam first heard of the project cancelation when friends and family began blowing up his phone.

The stunning news that the 76ers will be staying in South Philadelphia, and abandoning their long burning plans for a Center City arena, was greeted as good news by some in Philadelphia’s development industry.

The Sixers were being actively courted by officials in New Jersey, who wanted to bring the team to their side of the Delaware River.

The team already has a practice facility in Camden, New Jersey.

City Councilmembers and labor unions are scrambling to figure out what comes next with the $60 million community benefits agreement the team agreed, as well as the deals they struck with service and building trades unions.

“We need to make sure that the Sixers and the corporate partners stay true to their commitment to include strong union jobs and minority contracting opportunities,” said Rue Landau, an at-large city councilmember who voted against the enabling legislation for the arena at the end of last year.

Service sector unions like SEIU 32BJ embraced the project with the understanding the new arena would create more work for their members. (For 32BJ, which represents office building guards and janitors, the project also represented a shot in the arm for Center City.) The building trades routinely support large development projects of any kind for the same reason.

Philly tailgaters were excited that the Sixers will be staying in the sports complex, keeping all four teams together in South Philly.

“It keeps all of the teams unified in one area,” Caitlin Figueroa said. “There’s such a sense of community down here with all of the Philly sports teams. I feel like keeping the Sixers in the area will help support that and build that.”

One fan shouted over that he was glad it would still be easy to drive.

The future of East Market Street is in turmoil after news broke Sunday that the Philadelphia 76ers are abandoning their plans for an arena in Center City.

Just three days prior, city officials had boasted that the basketball project would catalyze new development on East Market even before the arena opened in 2031.

The east side of Market Street has long faced high levels of retail vacancy and since the COVID-19 pandemic many office buildings have struggled as well. The Macy’s in the iconic Wanamaker building just announced on Thursday that it would shutter in March, the last of the department stores that once defined the commercial thoroughfare.

Philadelphia’s politically powerful electricians’ union, a key supporter of the Center City arena proposal, in a statement Sunday tried to cast the Sixers’ change-of-plans as a win, saying the new deal is a “multi-billion [dollar] development that will create a stunning new stadium district that will keep our members working for decades.”

Mark Lynch, Jr., business manager of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 98, was a frequent presence in City Council last fall as lawmakers held a series of lengthy hearings over the Center City arena proposal. When members approved the deal, Lynch said it would “rebuild Market” and revitalize the struggling East Market Street corridor.

In his Sunday statement, he said Comcast has still committed to helping revive that area.

One of the leading City Council critics of the 76ers arena proposal in Center City says that the team’s sudden reversal proves the plan should have been subject to greater scrutiny.

“It is clear that we should have never trusted the process in the first place,” said Jamie Gauthier, who represents much of West Philadelphia. “This development proves that the project was half baked.”

During City Council’s hearings on the Sixers proposal, Gauthier raised a series of questions about the implications for SEPTA–which is experiencing a post-pandemic fiscal crisis–and for Chinatown, which neighbors the arena site on East Market Street.

The 76ers and Comcast still expect to submit a bid for a Philadelphia WNBA team, a source familiar with the situation told The Inquirer Sunday afternoon. 

Making such a bid was previously part of a late-September PowerPoint presentation about the proposed Center City arena, a sentiment echoed by mayor Cherelle Parker in a news conference that same night.

“I know you notice we don’t have a WNBA team here in the city of Philadelphia,” Parker said then. “Any of y’all ever noticed that? Y’all know y’all’s mayor don’t like that.

Two progressive City Council members who voted against approving the 76ers' proposed arena in Center City said in a statement Sunday that the news that the team is staying in South Philadelphia represents a “historic win and a testament to the power of organizing.”

Councilmembers Kendra Brooks and Nicolas O’Rourke, both of the Working Families Party, opposed the Center City arena project for more than a year, saying it would negatively impact Chinatown and that the Sixers had not committed enough money to a community-benefits agreement.

“Anybody following this issue closely could clearly see this was a power struggle between billionaires and corporations,” they said in a statement. “Their plans can change on a whim, and these latest developments are a clear example of why the Mayor and Council should never waste precious time and resources prioritizing billionaire projects over the work Philadelphians elect us to do.”

Former mayoral candidate Sam Katz, who is an expert on sports facility finance and has been working as a consultant for Comcast Spectacor, has for months been telling anyone who would listen that the 76ers’ Center City arena proposal was not financially feasible.

So Katz was not surprised to hear that the team has abandoned the proposal and struck a deal to work with Spectacor, which owns the Flyers, on a new arena in South Philadelphia.

“A one-team building of this cost was never privately financeable,” Katz said. “This never had a chance.”

Since their inception, the Sixers have bounced from rundown multipurpose venues to unequally shared arenas.

The road toward independence has been lined with more than a few failed bids. Namely from Camden, which attempted to thwart plans in South Philadelphia more than 30 years before its leadership offered an alternative to plans in Center City.

The latest is an abrupt reversal on constructing a new arena in Center City, instead partnering with Comcast Spectacor to build a new stadium in South Philly.

City Councilmember Mark Squilla carried a lot of water for the 76ers as the team fought to get its Center City arena plan approved.

Squilla’s 1st District includes the proposed site, and he introduced the legislation needed to green-light it. Throughout the fall, he worked to ease tensions with opponents of the project in Chinatown and Washington Square West. And he amended the legislation to make it more palatable to his Council colleagues and the public.

Squilla said Sunday he was not involved in the talks that led to the new deal, in which the 76ers and Comcast Spectactor will build a new arena in South Philadelphia instead of Center City. But he said he’s not upset with the outcome because both corporations are now making a commitment to help revitalize East Market Street.

As part of their deal to build a new arena in Center City, the Sixers also acquired a number of properties on the south side of Market Street that were slated for development as housing and retail.

One councilmember who has talked with the administration and the team said the 76ers are still planning to move forward with some of those projects, although details are vague. The timeline for development on both East Market and in South Philly would be moved up as well. The Sixers’ East Market arena was originally slated to open in 2031.

During last-minute negotiations to get the Center City arena proposal over the legislative finish line, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker committed to setting aside $20 million of city money for affordable housing in Chinatown. Councilmember Mark Squilla said that commitment remains in place.

The Sixers' abrupt reversal on constructing a new arena in Center City comes after Macy's announced it is closing its Market Street location in the Wanamaker Building.

City leaders called Macy’s decision the end of an era for Center City, but had high hopes for the Market Street corridor pegged to the Sixers new arena, which was slated to open for the NBA’s 2031-32 season.

Jessie Lawrence, the city’s director of planning and development, described the Sixers’ now-abandoned Center City arena plan as an “anchor” that was expected to jump-start development along Market Street.