Bad take here from The King:

Ah yes, the much-heralded Sixers tailgating scene. World renown! If would be a dark day in Philadelphia if this experience was taken from us.

This is such a bizarro take from Howard. There is no tailgating Sixers games in the regular season. Why? Because it’s the dead of fucking winter. It’s 30 degrees outside. Fans only begin to set up shop when we get to mid/late April and the playoffs, so I’d venture to say that fans tailgate maybe 10-15% of Sixers home games in a year where they’re good enough to at least get to the second round.

The thought with building on Market Street is that you can push customers into the bars and restaurants in that area. Reading Terminal Market is less than two blocks away. There are the Chinatown establishments on 10th, 11th, and Arch. You can walk from McGillin’s, El Vez, and tons of other spots that are in a small radius there. It’s all accessible by foot.

Howard would have a legitimate argument if the Sixers’ pregame experience was something to actually talk about. This isn’t an Eagles game, where huge RVs pull into the lots at the crack of dawn. Most fans going to watch basketball or hockey park and walk right into the arena, or make a pit stop at Xfinity Live for a drink.

Hypothetically, Sixers fans exiting a downtown arena would have their choice of bars to patronize, if that’s what they’re looking for. Right now the only thing you can do after a Sixers game is go to Xfinity Live or go home, unless you wanna catch a ride into the city and continue the festivities there.

There are a lot of legitimate concerns surrounding the plans for the new arena, but losing out on the basketball tailgating experience is not one of them.