76ers will have stadium in downtown Philadelphia by 2031

The Philadelphia 76ers have an ambitious plan to build a privately funded stadium in the heart of downtown Philadelphia, a project the team says will cost $1.3 billion and allow the 76ers to begin play there in the 2031-32 season. as the following year the equipment lease expires at his current home, Wells Fargo Center.

“It’s an exciting day for the organization,” 76ers president Tad Brown told ESPN. “There is a clear opportunity to create a state-of-the-art, world-class facility in Philadelphia.

“We know that what we believe is best for the city, for our fans and for our organization, is to be downtown in a state-of-the-art facility that will be privately funded by our owning team. And that’s going to create a whole new environment, which is also going to give a huge economic boost in a development push to a part of the city that really needs it.

“We think it’s beneficial for the city and for our organization… it’s going to be a lot of fun. This is a good day”.

The team’s co-owners, Josh Harris and David Blitzer, purchased the franchise from Comcast in 2011 and have had plans to build their own arena in Philadelphia for several years. That included an attempted plan to build one on a site called Penn’s Landing, a space on the city’s east side along the Delaware River, that ultimately fizzled out two years ago when the city opted for a different development plan.

At that point, Harris and Blitzer decided to partner with David Adelman, a lifelong 76ers fan, season ticket holder for more than 20 years, and real estate developer in his own right, to form a partnership and offer a new arena. .

And ultimately, the group believes it has done so with the deal it has struck to convert a portion of the Fashion District Mall right in the middle of the city into a stadium the team will be able to call their own, albeit one where the The arena floor will not break for several years, and it will be almost a decade before the team enters it.

“Honestly, when Penn’s Landing happens, yeah, I think one of the shortcomings was that they realized there was no person from Philadelphia leading the process,” Adelman told ESPN. He will be the president of a new company, 76 DevCorp, that he, Harris and Blitzer are creating and that is tasked with bringing the new arena from the blueprints to reality. “And, no disrespect to New York or anywhere else, but you kind of need something local, right?

“For me, being from here and growing up here, you know, going to Sixers games since I was a kid, this is like a dream come true for me, you know, being able to do a legacy project in Philly, which my children and grandchildren will know that I revitalized a part of Market Street that was not living up to its full potential, and to do so in this partnership is simply amazing.”

Brown admitted that the 76ers learned things through their setbacks with the Penn’s Landing proposal, and applied them to making things work with this site, which both Brown and Adelman said they had already secured agreements with all the stakeholders necessary to put the project underway, including Macerich, the company that operates the Fashion Center.

“I think we heard and learned things that maybe we didn’t expect for Penn’s Landing,” Brown said. “That’s why we came back with a better infrastructure, with David Adelman in his place. And also, you know, it’s all privately funded. So there’s nothing we’re asking the state or the city to get involved in this.

“[Pedir subsidios públicos] doesn’t work in Philly… we wanted to take that question off the table, and we want to build the best facility in the country with our own resources, so we can give back to the city. ”

All of this, however, left two other big questions: Will the 76ers stay at Wells Fargo Center for the duration of their lease, currently another nine seasons, and will the Flyers join them in the new effort?

Both Brown and Adelman insisted that the team would, in fact, play for another nine years in its current home and had no plans to try to speed up the process to get into this new building sooner.

And as for the Flyers, Brown said talks with his current co-tenants at the Wells Fargo Center are ongoing, and the 76ers would love to have him join them in the new venture, but the team’s decision hockey, however, does not change the fact that the project is moving forward.

“But everyone knows that what we’re going for organizationally is what’s best for the city, our fans and our organization,” Brown said. “We can all be as transparent and open with Comcast as we can as we move forward.”

Today, all four of Philadelphia’s professional sports teams play in the same complex in South Philadelphia that has housed them all for the last half century, including the construction of Wells Fargo Center, Lincoln Financial Field (Eagles), and Citizens Bank Park (Phillies). ) in the last 30 years to replace its predecessors, the Spectrum and Veterans Stadium.

The 76ers, however, believe that breaking with that tradition and building a stadium downtown can provide their fans with a much better experience in the future.

“How many stadiums have you been to in the urban core [de una ciudad]? That’s where the record goes,” Adelman said. “Right now, the sports complex in South Philly only has the Broad Street line, only one line. We have all the lines.

“When you leave the Wells Fargo Center, you can’t go get a drink, you can’t get something to eat, you have to go home and you have to sit in this chute to get into traffic. Right now our fans are forced to leave like two minutes early and we need to do better. We need to give them this experience.”