Five things to know about the proposed 76ers arena deal negotiated by Mayor Parker

The broad strokes of the proposed 76ers arena plan that Mayor Cherelle L. Parker unveiled Wednesday night came as no surprise: If City Council approves, the team will build the arena in Center City with no direct local taxpayer subsidy, while also funding a $50 million community benefits agreement.

But there are still plenty of moving parts in the plan and some revelations in the fine print. Council members and stakeholders are still pouring over the agreement and the 11 pieces of legislation needed to authorize the project later this fall.

Here’s what you need to know about the deal Parker negotiated with the 76ers, how it’s being received in Council, and why Comcast probably isn’t happy about it:

Council President Kenyatta Johnson hasn’t given many clues about where he stands on the arena proposal over the last two years. But after Wednesday night’s announcement, he sounded open to the deal.

“I do applaud the mayor and her team and their efforts at least coming up with an agreement to keep the Sixers here in the city of Philadelphia and not in Delaware and not in Jersey,” Johnson told reporters Thursday. “But nevertheless, the devil’s in the details, and now the hard work starts with members of City Council.”

Those aren’t the words of someone gearing up for a fight with the mayor.

Johnson’s support, tacit or explicit, would go a long way in ensuring Council ends up approving the deal.

City Councilmember Mark Squilla, who will be Council’s point person on legislation authorizing the arena, also spoke positively about the deal on Thursday, but added it likely will need to be amended to provide more “safeguards” for Chinatown before a final vote.

“There is opportunity in the community benefits agreement and the legislation that we saw,” he said. “I think right now there’s challenges still that we see, but I think also there is opportunity.”

» READ MORE: Mayor Cherelle Parker has unveiled the terms of the city’s deal with the Sixers to build a new arena

The purpose of a community benefits agreement is to soften or compensate for the impact of a development on affected neighbors and businesses.

The agreement Parker negotiated with the 76ers does just that by including $3 million for a lending program for Chinatown businesses and other measures. However, it also includes provisions that advance Parker’s agenda.

The largest expenditure listed in the $50 million CBA is $7 million for year-round schooling, which Parker campaigned on in last year’s mayoral election and piloted at 25 schools this year.

There’s also $4.5 million for the City College for Municipal Employment, a Parker pet project that would train Philadelphians interested in city jobs through a partnership with the Community College of Philadelphia.

The deal includes $1.25 million to expand PHL Taking Care of Business, a commercial corridor cleaning program Parker championed when she was on Council. The expansion would be coordinated with the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation.

The agreement also includes a pot-sweetener for the lawmakers who will soon be asked to vote on the deal in the form of a no-strings-attached $6 million allocation for “additional community-responsive purposes, as determined by City Council.”

Months after the 76ers unveiled the arena proposal in 2022, the team tacked on an apartment building to its plans for the facility in an effort to respond to community feedback.

It turns out that may not have had the intended effect.

Squilla, whose district includes the proposed arena site, said Thursday that he is working to get the team to drop its plans for the apartment building.

“My colleagues in Chinatown are really opposed to that housing development on top of the arena,” Squilla told reporters. “They took that as a middle finger to Chinatown. … So I’ve been working with the development team to remove that piece from the project.”

Publicly, the two-year battle over the arena proposal has pitted the 76ers against Chinatown. But behind the scenes, it has also been a clash of billionaires between the team’s owners and Brian Roberts, chairman and CEO of Comcast.

The agreement Parker unveiled Wednesday night is likely to exacerbate those tensions.

The cable giant’s subsidiary Comcast Spectacor, which owns the Flyers and Wells Fargo Center, stands to lose money if the 76ers depart from its South Philly arena, and it has worked to defeat the proposal.

That hasn’t gone over well with 76ers co-owner and lead developer David Adelman, and the team got Parker to agree to a provision in the deal that appears designed specifically to mess with Comcast.

The “competing facilities” clause would allow the 76ers to receive taxpayer money if the city subsidizes a competing sports facility during the 30-year life of the deal.

» READ MORE: A new twist in the 76ers’ arena negotiations could complicate the team’s promise to forgo city taxpayer support

Critics of the 76ers arena have called it a backdoor way for the team to get a subsidy it says it doesn’t need. But the real motivation may be to limit Comcast Spectacor’s options if it needs to replace the Wells Fargo Center. The provision only applies to facilities with 5,000 to 25,000 seats — about the size of a basketball or ice hockey arena, but smaller than a baseball or football stadium.

A Comcast Spectacor spokesperson declined to comment. The 76ers declined to comment on the clause but sent a statement from Adelman praising Parker.

“We appreciate Mayor Parker and her administration for taking the time to not only thoroughly evaluate our proposal, but also to articulate to the public how 76Place can serve as a much-needed catalyst for the broader revitalization of Market East,” Adelman said.

East Market Street is a state road, meaning it is maintained and controlled by PennDot, not the city. While that saves Philly taxpayers money, it also comes with restrictions around issues like outdoor signage, which the state tends to be stricter about than the city.

That could be a problem for the 76ers, which plan to build large electronic displays on the facility that could generate significant advertising revenue for the team.

» READ MORE: Philly is trying to gain control of East Market Street from the state. That could help the 76ers’ arena plan.

The city has been in talks with the state about potentially acquiring East Market Street, The Inquirer has reported. The deal would likely involve a swap to make the deal cost-neutral, with the state acquiring other city-owned roads or bridges.

That type of swap has been on the table for years, but the city and state never reached an agreement. The deal Parker negotiated with the 76ers anticipates it getting done soon.

The deal includes a list of things that need to happen if the city and the 76ers are to move forward with the arena plan. One of them is “the transfer of jurisdiction from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to the City of a certain length of East Market Street that would not result in additional costs being incurred by the City.”

Staff writers Jake Blumgart, Anna Orso, and Jeff Gammage contributed to this article.