A Crossing Broad reader sent this photo over. It shows new Comcast-Spectacor Chairman and CEO Dan Hilferty at Monday night’s Sixers playoff game, sitting alongside Phillies Executive Vice President David Buck and Eagles Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Frank Gumienny. This is across from the away team bench where Michael Rubin used to sit with the rappers:

Now you might be thinking “who gives a shit?“, since it’s not exactly news that big wig executive types would be sitting courtside at a sporting event. Fair enough, but the interesting connection here is that Hilferty has done some media lately, and he’s talked about alternatives to the Sixers building their own arena on Market Street, suggesting instead that the four major teams work together to focus on the sports complex instead. This is from a recent Jeff Gammage piece at the Inquirer:

The new chairman of Comcast Spectacor, which owns the Flyers and the Wells Fargo Center, where the Sixers are an unhappy tenant, wants (the Sixers arena saga) to conclude with the owners of both teams united, announcing they’re joining the Eagles, Phillies, and city officials in a massive transformation of the South Philadelphia sports complex, the plans for a downtown arena discarded.

“That’s my hope,” Hilferty said. “When we dream as individuals, really cool things can happen. But when we dream as a group, amazing, game-changing things can happen.”

….

“The building on East Market Street, we do have a different point of view,” he said. “If we all leaned in together, and the Sixers and the Flyers and Comcast Spectacor are the catalyst for that broader, big-picture approach, we believe we can do more for the region. We can create the greatest sports center in America.”

Another nugget here is that Gumienny is the guy who does all the events at the Linc. He was just promoted recently and here’s part of the blurb from his bio at the Birds’ website:

“In addition to being actively engaged with all departments on financial management matters, Frank has been responsible for the major events that have performed at Lincoln Financial Field over the past 20 years – concerts, comedy shows, monster truck shows, NCAA Lacrosse Championships, Army/Navy games, outdoor hockey matches, and international soccer matches (and, who could ever forget the Marvel Experience!). Frank has been our lead representative with our World Cup 2026 matches.”

So this is not nothing. It’s interesting from a larger, non-linear viewpoint.

Obviously you’re aware that the Sixers are a Wells Fargo Center tenant and want to build their own place. Comcast’s position is that they’ve spent a lot of money to upgrade the arena and would prefer that the Sixers stay, so we’ve been thinking of this as a Sixers vs. Comcast kind of thing from the beginning. But when you throw in the idea of the Phillies and Eagles getting involved in some sort of larger sports complex transformation, then see multiple team executives sitting together at a game, it adds more fascinating wrinkles to an expanding discussion.