At the South Philly sports complex, hopes that a new music hall can carry a different tune

Comcast Spectacor’s renderings of a proposed South Philadelphia entertainment complex, intended to surround the city’s big stadiums with glittery restaurants and bars, show a low, oblong structure on the south side of Pattison Avenue.

That spot is hallowed sports ground, the former site of the Spectrum, where for nearly three decades the Flyers fought and the Sixers flew their way to league championships.

There, the company and its Phillies partner intend to build a concert hall that would be one-third the size of the Spectrum but important to the overall 10-year, $2.5 billion plan to radically transform the Stadium District. It would be one of the first structures built, if the project goes forward.

“I’m excited about it because it’s a different type of music experience,” said Phil Laws, chief operating officer of Comcast Spectacor.

Company executives say a new, 5,500- to 6,000-seat arena will fill a niche in Philadelphia, opening different markets, attracting new kinds of acts — and bringing in new revenue.

Today these types of smaller venues are going up in cities from Pittsburgh to Denver to Los Angeles, putting fans closer to the stage and offering ticket prices that are generally cheaper than at bigger arenas.

Who performs there? Two types of bands: Those on the way up. And those on the way down.

That is, promoters and other experts say less facetiously, artists who are still popular but can no longer fill a building the size of the Wells Fargo Center, which seats 21,000 for concerts. And, additionally, performers who are gaining the momentum to eventually play major-league arenas but aren’t there yet, and in the meantime have outgrown clubs and theaters.

“That is a size that can accommodate a lot of the modern touring shows,” said Dave Brooks, senior director of live music and touring at Billboard, the music-and-entertainment magazine. “You can play that, come back and play the arena when you get bigger.”

Comedy acts fit nicely, since they require a certain intimacy. So do social-media influencers who are crossing from online to physical presentations. They’re good for Christian music performers and country bands that may sell out in the South but need fewer seats in the North. Boxing matches, mixed-martial arts, and college sports like wrestling and volleyball also find homes in these new properties.

In Los Angeles, where Brooks is based, the Peacock Theater seats 2,300 for music and 7,100 for conventions, award shows, and TV productions. From its perch beside Crypto.com Arena, home to the NBA Lakers and Clippers and the NHL Kings, the Peacock hosts 120 events a year, including Cat Stevens, Kelly Clarkson, and the BET Awards.

Eleven miles away in Inglewood, the 6,000-seat YouTube Theater opened in 2021 as part of the Hollywood Park complex that’s home to the NFL Chargers and Rams. This spring it’s booked Derek Hough, formerly of Dancing with the Stars, and Jordan B. Peterson, the conservative psychologist, author, and celebrity.

“There are a lot more acts that can fill 6,000 seats than can fill 18,000,” said Dennis Coates, a University of Maryland economics professor and a past president of the North American Association of Sports Economists.

In Philadelphia, Comcast Spectacor, owner of the Flyers and the Wells Fargo Center, has partnered with the Phillies on an ambitious plan to turn some of the vast stadium-district parking lots into a fan-friendly sports-and-entertainment zone. The development is scheduled to break ground in late fall with a $12 million renovation of Xfinity Live!, the sports bar near Citizens Bank Park.

The proposal emerged as the Sixers, Comcast Spectacor’s Wells Fargo Center tenant, plan to build and move to their own, $1.55 billion arena in Center City.

The Sixers need City Council to approve a package of legislation before they can start construction on East Market Street, and it’s unclear when or if that might come. Comcast Spectacor holds the development rights to the land around the Wells Fargo Center, which would speed construction of the South Philadelphia project.

Phillies managing partner and CEO John Middleton has described the planned development, which would include a “Phillies Plaza” for fans, as “a transformational project that will leave a lasting legacy on our amazing city,” enhancing work that’s already underway in nearby FDR Park, the Navy Yard, and the Bellwether District.

He and Comcast Spectacor envision a live-work-play area that would include hotels, apartments, stores, attractions, and maybe offices, replicating the complexes that are springing up beside stadiums and arenas in other cities — places that bring new gathering spaces for fans and fresh riches to team owners.

Building the smaller arena early in the redevelopment would help the overall project because the music hall would make money from the moment it opened. It wouldn’t depend on other structures or nearby growth to support it.

Laws said the South Philadelphia venture by Comcast Spectacor and the Phillies would be privately funded. Taxpayer dollars would be involved in improving nearby highways, such as the exits off of I-95 and other roads around the sports complex.

The Sixers have pledged not to take any city tax money for their development but left open the possibility of accepting state and federal funds. The team has rejected its landlord’s entreaties to stay in South Philadelphia, where the Wells Fargo Center recently underwent a $400 million renovation.

Sixers co-owner and lead developer David Adelman says, no matter what, the team will not play in South Philadelphia after its lease expires in 2031.

Comcast Spectacor and the Sixers have battled over whether the region needs or can support a second arena the size of the Wells Fargo Center, which seats up to 19,600 for Flyers hockey and 21,000 for Sixers games and concerts.

The Sixers say their planned 18,500-seat arena would host about 150 events a year, bringing new entertainment to an underserved Philadelphia market and needed vitality to Market East.

Comcast Spectacor says few additional acts are to be found because every major show already plays the Wells Fargo Center, which annually hosts about 220 events. That figure includes about 90 regular and preseason Flyers and Sixers games, half of which would depart to Center City if a Sixers arena is built.

The Sixers declined to comment on their landlord’s redevelopment plans.

Across the United States, people who run big arenas like the Wells Fargo Center have one thing in common: They’re afraid of the dark. That is, of empty dates when nothing is scheduled and the concession stands and seating bowls fall silent.

And right now they’re staring at blank spots on the calendar.

Many of the bands that have reliably filled arenas for much of the last 50 years — the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, members of the Grateful Dead, Kiss, Billy Joel, Tom Petty, Aerosmith, Elton John, The Who, Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen — are aging or dead.

And no one knows who or what will take their place.

“There is a historic hole that’s coming our way,” Laws said.

His company believes a 6,000-seat venue could draw 150 to 200 events a year, helping replace some of that audience.

The music hall would represent an unusual size in Philadelphia, where showplaces tend toward big or small.

The most popular sports and concert events — Eagles football, international soccer, Taylor Swift, Beyoncé — command the 69,000 seats of Lincoln Financial Field.

Springsteen is scheduled to take over 43,000-seat Citizens Bank Park for two shows this summer. Green Day will play a night there, and so will a show featuring Def Leppard, Journey, and the Steve Miller Band.

Other top entertainers can fill the Wells Fargo Center, which replaced the Spectrum as home to the Flyers and Sixers.

After that, with some exceptions, the scale of local entertainment venues drops precipitously, to the 3,500 seats at the Met, the opera house turned pop venue on North Broad Street, and the 3,000 at the Fillmore, once the Ajax Metal Factory in Fishtown. The Tower Theater in Upper Darby holds about 3,000, and the venerable Keswick Theatre in Glenside seats 1,361.

The exceptions include the Mann Center for the Performing Arts, which seats 4,500 but can accommodate 9,500 on its terrace and lawn. The Dell Music Center has 5,284 seats and lawn space for 600 more, and across the river in Camden the indoor-outdoor Freedom Mortgage Pavilion permits attendance of up to 25,000.

Pittsburgh city officials are going forward with a plan to build a 4,500-seat music hall on the site of the departed Civic Arena, nicknamed “the igloo” for its giant silver dome.

In Boston, the 2-year-old, 5,009-seat MGM Music Hall at Fenway replaced a parking lot near the Red Sox stadium, welcoming artists like the Saw Doctors, Bonnie Raitt, and Norah Jones. In Denver, the 5-year-old Mission Ballroom holds nearly 4,000 for concerts, awards shows, and trade events.

In Tempe, Ariz., the 5,000-seat Mullet Arena — named for university donors, not the haircut — hosts Arizona State University men’s and women’s hockey and, until recently, the NHL Arizona Coyotes, whose inability to secure a major-league venue initiated the team’s relocation to Utah. On the arena’s schedule is the comedy trio 85 South, Christian singer-songwriter Chris Tomlin, and the World Hip Hop Dance championship.

The 5,100-seat Xtreme Arena in Coralville, Iowa, opened in 2020, a multipurpose venue that’s home to minor-league Iowa Heartlanders hockey and the University of Iowa women’s volleyball team. It has an Antique Car Museum on its lower level.

Today’s bands and artists are challenged by the changing nature of their industry, as touring revenue became more important while sales of physical, recorded music dropped through the floor amid the rise of digital formats.

Music sales hit a peak of $26.7 billion in 1999, when adjusted for inflation to 2023 dollars, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, the industry group. That year CDs accounted for 88% of revenue. By 2014 sales had dropped to $8.6 billion, as digital music allowed fans to skip buying entire albums and choose a few favorite tracks for about $1 each.

Paid subscription models fueled some recovery, with total music sales reaching $17.1 billion in 2023, according to the RIAA.

Against that decline comes record-setting tour sales, according to Pollstar, the concert-industry publication, which pronounced the year 2023 “a colossus, the likes of which the live industry has never before seen.”

The total gross for the top 100 worldwide tours was up 46% to $9.2 billion, compared to $6.3 billion the previous year. Total tickets sold rose 18% to 70 million, and the average ticket price increased 23% to $131, Pollstar said.

Comcast Spectacor expects to break ground on the music hall in mid-to-late 2025 and complete the work within two years. The venue ownership and operating structure is still being determined.

“We’ve had some fantastic ones open [around the country] and kind of prove the point that, ‘Hey, this is a good idea,’” Laws said. “This can work, and it can work in a way where it’s not cannibalizing the arena. It can work in conjunction.”