Fun story here at the Inquirer. Apparently the Sixers are looking at Penn’s Landing as a potential location for a new arena.

Five different writers worked on it, and here’s a snippet from the combined effort of Sean Collins Walsh, Laura McCrystal, Inga Saffron, Andrew Seidman and Chris Brennan:

“The 76ers are exploring the possibility of building a new basketball arena at Penn’s Landing, and the team is lobbying local officials to get behind a plan to help finance construction with taxpayer support, The Inquirer has learned.

The proposal, sure to spark intense debate, is the latest in a long history of disputes over how to revitalize the Delaware River waterfront and where to put sports complexes in Philadelphia. The team wants to move out of the Wells Fargo Center, which it shares with the Flyers and which is owned by Comcast Spectacor, by the 2031 season, according to a planning document viewed by The Inquirer. The document is a draft of talking points for the Sixers’ lobbying efforts.

The team is proposing to finance the project using the state Neighborhood Improvement Zone (NIZ) program, which allows development bonds to be issued based on future tax revenues from businesses within a certain area. It was used to fund the construction of an arena in Allentown.

The document says that no direct appropriation of taxpayer money would be needed, and that the NIZ would be funded through future city and state tax revenue.”

People seem to be in agreement that taxpayers should contribute exactly $0 to this project, if it happens. That’s not even a dig at Josh Harris, it’s just that the City of Philadelphia is in such bad shape right now there’s zero justification for putting even 0.0000001% of revenue towards a new sports arena, even if HBSE kicked in a significant portion of private financing. There’s trash piling up on the street and potholes and our infrastructure is falling apart, so the point is that we just have a lot of priorities that need to be sorted. I mean, the city just spent $700,000 to demolish that pointless arch at Penn’s Landing, which was part of a failed project dating back more than two decades. And there are other plans for that area currently, which includes a park that will be built over I-95 to connect Old City to the Delaware River.

Otherwise, yes, the Sixers should get the hell out of the Wells Fargo Center when their lease expires. They’re a tenant, so they don’t even own the place. It’s not really their home, they just play there. Plus, the arena is cramped and beat up and cold, because of the hockey ice, which just makes it feel “blah” overall. It’s a 25-year-old building that has had 75 years worth of use, in my opinion. That place is a constant hive of activity, changing from a basketball arena to a hockey arena to a lacrosse jawn and then back again at least 700 times per year.

(However, the upgrades are really nice, and the new standing room only area up top is a banger.)