
The Sixers Arena is No More - Here's What's Happening Instead
We’ve got breaking news a few hours before the Eagles playoff game:
BREAKING: 76ers Arena is not happening.
I’ll let the Parker administration confirm the details.
— Ernest Owens (@MrErnestOwens) January 12, 2025
Sources are telling me that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Comcast President Brian Roberts have talked the Sixers into staying in South Philly.
Mayor Parker is expected to give a press conference tomorrow at 11 am.
The 76ers Arena backpedal.
— Ernest Owens (@MrErnestOwens) January 12, 2025
#BREAKING Sixers to remain in South Philly, abandoning plans to build a Center City arena, officials sayhttps://t.co/apdxeLOg7R
— The Philadelphia Inquirer (@PhillyInquirer) January 12, 2025
Alright, so I talked to some sources familiar with what’s going on. Basically after the holidays, AFTER the arena deal was approved by city council, Comcast and the Sixers re-engaged on talks, and this all came about rather quickly.
1) There will be a new combination basketball + hockey arena built in South Philly ahead of the 2031 season that is going to be a 50/50 partnership between HBSE and Comcast. The deal was essentially revisited at the last minute with Brian Roberts leading the charge, not Dan Hilferty, and it included more of what the Sixers were looking for when initially proposed. It sounds to me like Comcast conceded more at the final moment in terms of building management and scheduling. 2) Comcast will join a Sixers bid for a WNBA expansion team. Sources explained it to me as the Sixers leading that effort and Comcast having a stake in it. 3) With 76 Place out of the picture, both the Sixers and Comcast will partner on a more generic redevelopment project for Market Street, obviously not including a sports venue. 4) RE: Union labor, they’re actually going to get two jobs now, one, building this new arena in South Philly and two, working on these Market Street projects. 5) Renewed conversations between Comcast and the Sixers did not start until after Christmas, and this agreement wasn’t finished until the last 72 hours. Despite getting City Council approval, they still had a couple of hoops to jump through before starting with demolition.
So basically there are two theories here. The first one is that the Sixers had to go all the way to full Council approval to create enough leverage to get a fair deal from Comcast. In layman’s terms, it was the world’s biggest game of chicken. The second theory is that the Sixers couldn’t get over a late hurdle and had no choice but to re-engage Comcast at the last minute (there were some rumors floating around about financing, but I don’t think they ever turned into a legitimate report). I’m not totally sure. But it’s really fascinating because the two sides were absolutely killing each other behind the scenes for more than two years. Comcast was meeting with Chinatown and the various opposition groups, and trying to work various commerce and business organizations in Philadelphia while the Sixers were throwing money at Jeff Brown’s mayoral campaign and whatnot. It was really bad for decent stretch of time, to the point where you wondered if that relationship was irreparable. About a year ago, Comcast switched up their leadership and made a change in the public relations staff and arena approach, so the tensions finally did cool off in the second part of 2024 and it seems like Brian Roberts was the figure who was key calming things down and getting both sides back to the table.
CliffsNotes: it’s now two projects instead of one. There’s the downtown Market Street component, without the arena, then the Sixers + Flyers combination building for 2031. I’ll ask around to see if we can get more details on that before a Monday press conference.