A decades-long search for its own home

Independence has eluded the 76ers.

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

Now that is on track to change.

City Council members on Thursday gave their preliminary blessing to landmark legislation enabling the Sixers to build a $1.3 billion Center City arena. It will be the first of its kind in Philadelphia: a space specifically designed to host professional basketball.

But 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.

Here’s a timeline of the Sixers' failed attempts to build a home court.

The Philadelphia Warriors, founded in 1946, were one of the original 11 NBA teams. They played at the Philadelphia Arena at 46th and Market Streets, which hosted everything from wrestling matches to swim meets, before crowds ranging from 5,000 to 10,000. And the Warriors’ schedule suffered.

They’d play at the Philadelphia Convention Hall and Civic Center, intended to nominate presidential candidates, and the Palestra on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania.

And they’d leave the city, playing at Liberty High School’s gym in Bethlehem, Pa., and at what is now the Hersheypark Arena, where on March 2, 1962, Wilt Chamberlain famously scored 100 points in a game.

They even played at an armory in Camden.

The team lost money in 1961, despite having the game’s top player, leading to owner Eddie Gottlieb selling the team in 1962 for a then-record $850,000. The franchise relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area.

One year later, the Syracuse Nationals moved to Philadelphia and adopted the nickname 76ers in honor of the Declaration of Independence.

And the Sixers inherited the Warriors’ smorgasbord of venues, spending their first few seasons shuffling between the Philadelphia Arena and the Civic Center, without better options.

In 1966, Philadelphia Eagles owner Jerry Wolman put the final touches on his prized development: the $10 million Spectrum. It was the city’s first modern indoor sports arena, and it featured 15,000 stadium seats wrapped around an oval-shaped center.

The arena was built to house the NHL’s expansion Flyers, host big boxing matches and jazz shows, and, ideally, host the Sixers. The team and the arena leaders haggled over television rights, playoff scheduling, practice time, and free parking. But the two groups resolved their issues, and the team signed on as a tenant before the grand opening in September 1967.

The Sixers called the venue home for the next 28 years, enjoying a run of success that culminated with an NBA championship in 1983.

But over that period, Eagles vice president Ed Snider bought the Flyers and the Spectrum, and created Spectacor to oversee them, ushering in a new era of sports entertainment.

Now the Sixers were tenants of a Spectrum overlord, and the teams did not equally share the profits. And by the late ’80s, the teams were outgrowing the building.

Over 30 months, between 1989 and 1991, the Flyers and Sixers fought for a new stadium deal.

Then-76ers owner Harold Katz, chafing under what he termed “the worst lease in the NBA,” contacted New Jersey officials to pitch a new arena at Garden State Park in Cherry Hill. The officials came back with a counterproposal: the Camden riverfront.

Katz grew tired of the drawn-out negotiations and compromised: The Sixers would join the Flyers in a new arena, and agreed to let Spectator make the deal. And in return, the Sixers got a 30-year lease in the forthcoming building, and a share of revenue from parking, concessions, and advertising.

Camden’s final offer: Roughly $65 million toward a new, $100 million arena, and a 100-acre parcel north of the Walt Whitman Bridge.

Delaware County officials couldn’t imagine the state of Pennsylvania without the Flyers or the Sixers. So they did the honorable thing, and offered up a 297-acre industrial park near Philadelphia International Airport in tiny Tinicum Township.

Of course, no one thought to ask the Tinicum residents. Sure, some thought the arena could be good for business, but most seemed to prefer their suburban tranquility. The consensus: The gain would not be worth the loss.

In the end, New Jersey made the best pitch.

But Snider — out of either loyalty to Philadelphia or fear of the unknown — decided to stay in the city.

And in June 1991, the Flyers and Sixers agreed to build a 21,000-seat, $200 million arena and concourse on the site once occupied by JFK Stadium, which was torn down.

The CoreStates Center, now the Wells Fargo Center, opened in August 1996.

The deal Katz signed with Spectacor was enough for a while, but as new ownership took over and the economics of sports evolved, the Sixers wanted to maximize their value with their own home.

Wharton graduate and billionaire Josh Harris and partner David Blitzer bought the 76ers in 2011 for a reported $280 million from Comcast Spectacor.

Notably, the sale did not include the arena.

In 2020, the team would announce plans not only to build its own 18,500-seat arena, but also to incorporate it into a larger development plan on Penn’s Landing. This new approach would help the team earn additional revenue from apartments, hotels, shops, and restaurants spread along the waterfront between Market and South Streets.

The plan died a fast death after the Sixers were denied the development rights by waterfront officials, which upended the flashy $4 billion plan but didn’t thwart the owners’ development dreams.

Harris and Blitzer just called in reinforcements.

In 2022, the duo brought on a new partner: real estate pro David Adelman, who made a name for himself developing campus housing in University City.

He was tapped to help lead the push for a new arena at 11th and Market Streets.

By paying for the stadium themselves, and adding Center City real estate to their portfolio, the Sixers could join a long list of professional sports teams that are turning into real estate empires. And the reasoning seems pretty straightforward: help bring in more cash, and increase the value of their franchise’s assets.