According to multiple reports out of Philadelphia, the 76ers appear to be pivoting in their plans for a new arena yet again.
Per news outlet Sportico, “The Philadelphia 76ers have dropped plans for a new arena in Center City and will instead partner with Comcast for a venue in the South Philadelphia Sports Complex, where the team currently plays. The new building will house the NBA team and NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers, who are owned by Comcast Spectacor”.
While the announcement hasn’t been made official, a press conference is expected to be held on Monday to finalize the move. The change isn’t insignificant given the hoops that Philadelphia City Council jumped through to approve the previously proposed $1.3B deal to build a downtown arena.
The Sixers current lease at the Wells Fargo Center runs until 2031, however the ownership group had spent the better part of the last 2 years lobbying stakeholders to green light the Center City site. Instead, they’ll look to now create a new complex in the same district that the Eagles and Phillies currently call home.
The deal will reportedly be a 50-50 partnership between the 76ers and the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers on the project. But by bringing on Comcast, there’s hope that the group will also be able to add a future WNBA franchise to the mix as well.
While there remain several details that still need solidifying, the partnership between Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment and Comcast Spectator makes sense both financially and logistically. With Comcast being the team’s local media partner, and now having national broadcast rights for the NBA through the most recent streaming & broadcasting deal, the two entities would have a mutual interest to add a WNBA franchise to their portfolio.
The WNBA’s current CBA is set to expire after next season, and it’s widely expected that there will be sweeping changes made to broadcasting, salaries, and a slew of other topics as well. As such, the expansion fee to acquire a new WNBA franchise is rumoured to be in the neighbourhood of $100M. But if Comcast is able to secure a piece of the broadcasting rights in the next round of negotiations, and the Sixers are finally able to own the building rather than leasing it, that’s an investment which will pay for itself the near future multiple times over.
A formal announcement is expected to be made at 11am on Monday.
Photo: Jen Smith. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.