Sixers say area around proposed Center City arena could handle thousands of cars on game days

On game days, the Sixers estimate, about 3,700 cars would arrive and depart from the area around their new arena, the basketball-and-entertainment showplace the team intends to build in downtown Philadelphia.

That’s if the team can slash the percentage of fans who now drive to the games at the Wells Fargo Center in South Philadelphia and simultaneously rocket the percentage of those who travel on public transportation.

“It would require an adjustment on the part of their fans,” said professor Michael Leeds, who studies sports economics at Temple University. “And Americans are notoriously hostile to being inconvenienced.”

» READ MORE: Car? Train? Foot? Sixers fans say getting to the games could change for them at a new arena

For more than 50 years at two different South Philadelphia arenas, the car has defined the get-to-the-game experience of Sixers fans.

Now the team wants to depart the Wells Fargo Center, trading the sprawl of the sports complex for the crowded core of Center City and surrendering the flat ocean of pavement that comprises one of the largest parking areas in North America — about 22,000 spaces.

Traffic, parking, and congestion have emerged as major concerns surrounding the team’s desire to construct a privately financed, $1.3 billion arena on the edge of Chinatown, where leaders and residents have condemned the development.

The Sixers say their strategic choice to build atop Jefferson Station with its premier access to public transit means there’s no need to add parking — that existing lots and garages are more than sufficient for game-day traffic.

Their transportation plans project that 40% of fans would travel to games via SEPTA trains, trolleys, subways, and buses, or take PATCO from South Jersey. An additional 10% would walk.

But experts who study sports stadiums and arenas say the Sixers will be challenged to change the behavior of people who in some cases have been driving to games for decades. A team-ownership official estimated that currently, about 75% of fans drive to games at the Wells Fargo Center.

“I applaud the spirit,” Leeds said. “If they could pull it off and avoid the need for parking, that would be great.”

But, he said, “they’re betting against 70 years of American history.”

Some NBA teams are actively engaging public transport as they build downtown arenas. In transit-heavy New York City, the Barclays Center, home of the Brooklyn Nets, is easily reached by the MTA subway and Long Island Railroad. In San Francisco, the new Central Subway stops outside the Chase Center, where the Golden State Warriors play.

Meanwhile, this month three major transportation agencies declared that venerable Madison Square Garden, which sits above Penn Station in New York City, was no longer compatible with the transit center, and that the arena imposes “severe constraints” that “impede the safe and efficient movement of passengers.”

Amtrak, NJ Transit, and the MTA issued their finding as officials debate whether the Garden, opened in 1968 and home to the NBA’s Knicks and NHL’s Rangers, should remain at its downtown site.

» READ MORE: The Sixers’ idea isn’t new. Sports arenas around the U.S. have been built on or near transit.

Since the 1950s, Leeds said, the need for parking has largely determined the location of the nation’s sports stadiums and arenas, as the postwar shift of population from city to suburb meant more people traveled by car.

When the Phillies left Connie Mack Stadium in North Philadelphia in 1970, they moved to the wide-open space of South Philadelphia. And when they replaced Veterans Stadium after nearly 33 years, they built Citizens Bank Park there, too — after proposed sites in Spring Garden and Chinatown were rejected over concerns that included traffic and parking. In 1996, the Sixers and Flyers left the Spectrum and moved nearby to the then-new Wells Fargo Center.

The Sixers’ traffic estimates are contained in a transportation impact study conducted for the team by Philadelphia-based Langan Engineering and Environmental Services Inc. and completed in November 2022.

The study was obtained by Faye Anderson, a Philadelphia policy consultant, historian, and preservationist, through a right-to-know public-records request she filed with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

The Sixers declined repeated requests made over several weeks to answer questions about parking, traffic, and transportation, and to discuss their consultant’s study.

A spokesperson referred The Inquirer to a presentation made to a community group on June 7 by lead developer and Sixers co-owner David Adelman. He told the Washington Square West Civic Association that the team’s planning ensures the arena area can readily handle an influx of cars.

“We know that this is an ambitious project,” Adelman said. “Philadelphia needs to think big.”

Wells Fargo Center owner Comcast Spectacor says that across all events, 85% of guests drive to the 21,000-seat venue.

The Sixers anticipate cutting that percentage at a new arena to 40% traveling by automobile and 10% by taxi or rideshare service, according to the study.

Fans who wish to drive and park, the team says, will find 29 lots and garages within a half-mile radius of the site.

The Sixers intend to build the arena on the block from 10th to 11th, and Market to Filbert Streets, claiming the Greyhound bus station and one-third of the Fashion District mall while abutting Chinatown at Cuthbert Street.

The team wants to open its arena in 2031, when its lease expires at the Wells Fargo Center. Future construction at the downtown site could include up to 395 residential housing units, the team transportation study said.

“I 100% agree that there’s more than adequate parking,” said Robert Zuritsky, president and CEO of Philadelphia-based Parkway Corp., which develops and manages lots and garages across the United States and Canada.

In fact, said Zuritsky, who added that he was consulting with the Sixers on transportation matters, driving to the new arena will be more convenient than driving to the Wells Fargo Center.

Most NBA games are played at night, when the rush-hour commute is over and parking areas have largely emptied, he noted. Fans could be offered the chance to buy prepaid passes to those facilities, so they would know in advance where they’re going — and that a parking space would be waiting when they get there.

The team plans to do exactly that, selling prepaid passes as a means to help spread out the cars, Adelman said at the civic association meeting.

That would prevent cars from circling Center City in search of parking and disperse traffic to different points. By comparison, Zuritsky said, in South Philadelphia everyone is driving to the same destination.

The Sixers official estimated that 25% of fans take public transportation to Wells Fargo Center games. Comcast Spectacor says the number is lower, that only about 13% take buses or the Broad Street Line subway to arena events.

The Sixers’ effort to push that to 40% will be buttressed, Adelman said, by a plan to provide free SEPTA and PATCO passes to season ticket holders.

The study said there’s sufficient nearby parking to support fans who drive, and that, with some changes and improvements, the surrounding streets could handle the traffic and crowds. Those changes would include closing 10th and 11th between Market and Filbert on game days.

Public transit would be able to handle fans coming to the new 18,500-seat arena through infrastructure upgrades and by adding more capacity on game days, the study said. It did not estimate the cost of improvements or say who would pay for them.

For fans of the city’s four major teams, the sports complex is a location that gives and takes. The home of the Wells Fargo Center, Citizens Bank Park, and Lincoln Financial Field offers ready highway access, parking, and subway service, but except for games and events there’s little reason to go there.

The Sixers say their new arena would create a downtown destination, energizing foot traffic, spending, and business growth, and helping to revitalize a struggling area of East Market Street. Team executives say the Wells Fargo Center is growing old, and its recent $400 million renovation won’t significantly extend its life.

Comcast Spectacor, which owns the Flyers in addition to the center, and also serves as landlord to the tenant Sixers, says the rebuild has created what is basically a new venue, one that will last for decades.

Company chairman Daniel Hilferty wants the Sixers to drop their plans to leave and join the Flyers, Eagles, Phillies, and city officials in a massive transformation of the sports complex, an evolution that could include a hotel, apartments, and a 5,000-seat entertainment venue.

The Sixers’ Adelman said on Twitter in April and again at the June 7 community meeting that the team’s plans remain unchanged.

The Sixers anticipate hosting about 150 events a year at their venue. The Wells Fargo Center currently hosts about 220. More than 75% of all guests live outside of the city, according to Comcast Spectacor.

“The preference for driving will only change minimally in a downtown arena, if at all,” said Villanova University professor Rick Eckstein, who studies sports venues around the nation. “The attending fan base is mostly suburban, and Regional Rail has been scaled way back at non-commuting times. Are SEPTA and PATCO planning to add extra service for 41 [game] days? On which lines? Who would pay for this?”

Sports complex traffic jams can be miserable, but the district’s plentiful parking is also a big reason that so many people drive there.

Its 22,000 spaces outnumber the 13,500 at Philadelphia International Airport and the 12,750 at the biggest mall in the country, the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn. The South Philadelphia lots approach that of the world’s largest parking area: the 30,000 spaces at the West Edmonton Mall in Canada.

Comcast Spectacor officials view the vast parking area as an asset, not as wasted space. It enables more than one major event to be held simultaneously, while providing room for tailgating, for lines of waiting concert fans, and for parents wanting to safely drop off younger children, they say.

The lots also handle the tours of popular music performers, who may arrive with 30 tractor-trailer-sized trucks and buses carrying stages, people, and equipment.

Some business and labor groups say a downtown arena could give Philadelphia a needed boost, that a plan to invest $1.3 billion and create thousands of construction jobs should be embraced. The team’s proposal arrives at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the very nature of work and commuting, diminishing the use of transit, parking, and office space.

Still, traffic and parking can be daunting in a Market East area that, according to the city, has more public spaces than any Center City neighborhood, with 11,275 spots in garages and lots.

That’s as the number of spaces in the area of Chinatown and the Pennsylvania Convention Center has dropped 20% in five years, from 1,704 to 1,360. That’s the biggest percentage loss in Center City, where decreases have been driven by new construction and development, the city study said.

Comcast Spectacor says about 6,500 cars park at the Wells Fargo Center for Sixers games and other well-attended events. The Sixers estimate 5,232 at their games.

The team’s transportation study says the number of fans taking public transit, rideshares, taxis, or walking to a sold-out game would reduce the need for parking to 2,960 spaces. That’s based on each car carrying an average of 2.5 people.

The study counts 8,895 spaces at the 29 facilities within a half mile of the arena site and estimates that 5,600 spots will be available on Fridays and 4,700 on Saturdays.

NBA games are played on all days of the week.

The team’s transportation plan anticipates the arena will have two nearby drop-off and pickup locations for people taking taxis and rideshares on game days. And that the team will operate a parking-and-traffic hotline for fans.

Some on-street parking near the arena may need to be restricted on game days to improve the flow of traffic, the study said. Philadelphia police would coordinate a tag-and-tow detail to ticket and remove cars from designated “no parking” spaces, it said.

People in Chinatown say that even if the Sixers can increase the use of public transit, huge numbers of cars will pour into the neighborhood. That will hurt restaurants and businesses that need parking for customers, they say, and torment residents with exhaust fumes and honking horns.

Last weekend cascades of “No Arena” demonstrators filled the streets and shut down traffic across a broad swath of Center City, marching to stop a project they say will destroy the community.

People wonder how an ambulance would reach someone who’s been stricken. Or how fire crews at 10th and Cherry, the famous House of Dragons, would get trucks and ladders out of the station in an emergency.

Amanda Chan worries about her grandfather, who needs kidney dialysis several times a week. Currently that’s a three-minute trip to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital from his home at the Francis House of Peace in Chinatown.

What happens, she wonders, when roads close and traffic clogs during five years of demolition and construction? She fears delay and stress will worsen his condition.

“There are many tenants in the same situation as him,” said Chan, whose family has lived in Chinatown for 60 years. “It would have such an impact on their emotional, mental, and physical health.”