Featured image credit: Philadelphia 76ers
The Philadelphia 76ers NBA franchise is abandoning plans to build a downtown arena after striking a deal with Comcast Spectacor to develop a new facility in the South Philadelphia Sports Complex.
Comcast Spectacor owns the Sixers’ current home arena, Wells Fargo Center, where the team has a lease to play until 2031. The arena is also home to the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers.
The Sixers had been planning a new $1.3bn (£1.07bn/€1.27bn) arena (pictured), provisionally dubbed 76 Place, and last month the team received the green light to proceed with the project after Philadelphia City Council gave a final 12-5 vote on bills to approve the scheme.
Reports of the Sixers’ decision to scrap the 76 Place plans first emerged over the weekend, and more details have been revealed in a joint statement released today (Monday) by Comcast Spectacor and the Sixers’ parent company, Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment (HBSE).
HBSE and Comcast Spectacor have entered into a binding agreement to form a 50-50 joint venture to build a “world-class, state-of-the-art arena” in the South Philadelphia Sports Complex. The arena would serve as the new home of both the Sixers and the Flyers.
The arena is slated to open in 2031, with the potential to accelerate to an earlier date. HBSE and Comcast Spectacor said the new facility would be “one of the finest, most technologically advanced, and sustainable” sports and entertainment arenas in the US.
The partnership also includes a 50-50 venture to invest in the revitalisation of Market East in Center City, the proposed site for the 76 Place project. It is hoped the partnership will create thousands of jobs and generate billions of dollars in economic activity for the city, region and state.
Comcast is also planning to take a minority stake in the Sixers and will join forces with HBSE in a bid to bring a WNBA franchise to Philadelphia. The new arena partnership will be a joint venture with equal board representation and an HBSE representative serving as the chair. Comcast will hold naming rights to the venue.
Brian L. Roberts, chairman and chief executive of Comcast Corporation, said: “This is a great day for Philadelphia and the fans of our storied sports franchises. We are grateful to Mayor (Cherelle) Parker and Governor (Josh) Shapiro for their leadership and are thrilled to work together to develop the premier sports and entertainment destination in the nation that will benefit the region for decades to come.”
HBSE’s Josh Harris, David Blitzer and David Adelman, added: “From the start, we envisioned a project that would be transformative for our city and deliver the type of experience our fans deserve. By coming together with Brian and Comcast, this partnership ensures Philadelphia will have two developments instead of one, creating more jobs and real, sustainable economic opportunity.”
NBA commissioner Adam Silver also hailed the announcement as “great news” for the City of Philadelphia, while his NHL counterpart Gary Bettman said the “visionary and forward-looking facility will take the fan experience to a whole new level”.
No renderings of the proposed new arena have been released, nor has the capacity of the facility been confirmed. More details are set to emerge at a press conference later today.
The 76 Place arena, plans for which were first announced in July 2022, would have seated 18,500 fans. The project proved controversial, with vocal opposition having been raised through what had been eight public hearings on the scheme.
The council approval came after Mayor Parker in September backed plans for the 76 Place venture amid interest in the team from the nearby states of New Jersey and Delaware. Residents in the Chinatown neighbourhood were strongly against the proposal, and Parker had expressed a commitment to working with locals to address their concerns.
It had been hoped that the 76 Place arena would be completed in time for the 2031-32 NBA season, with the original timeline foreseeing that construction would not be able to proceed until 2028. Demolition on the arena site had been scheduled to start in June 2026.
Today’s announcement will see the Sixers remain at the South Philadelphia Sports Complex, which also includes Lincoln Financial Field, home of the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles, and Citizens Bank Park, home of Major League Baseball’s Philadelphia Phillies.
Wells Fargo Center is also in the midst of a $400m transformation project. In October 2023, Comcast Spectacor launched a new marketing campaign to promote the renovation, with the plans also focusing on the wider Sports Complex.
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