Villanova

Ranking the Top Ten Philly Teams from the Wells Fargo Center Era (2010 to 2025)

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Jun 6th, 2025 · 10:01 AM EDT

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It’s the end of an era at the Sports Complex, as the Wells Fargo Center branding is removed from the side of the hockey and basketball venue, soon to be replaced with “Xfinity Mobile Arena” –

The end of an era pic.twitter.com/aTmCB93aFd

— Crossing Broad (@CrossingBroad) June 5, 2025

The Wells Fargo name had been attached to the indoor South Philly arena since 2010, when the bank acquired Wachovia, thus taking us from the CoreStates Center (1996 to 1998), to the First Union Center (1998-2003), to Wachovia Center (2003 to 2010), to Wells Fargo Center (2010 to 2025). The arena naming rights have been attached to a bank since its inception, with CoreStates being acquired by First Union, which acquired Wachovia, which was then acquired by Wells Fargo. It’s been one continuous exercise of acquisitions and mergers that have resulted in naming rights shifts over almost 30 years.

Regardless, for the sake of the exercise, we will focus on the period when the building was known as “Wells Fargo Center,” and attempt to rank the 10 best teams to call this arena their home floor between 2010 and 2025:

1. 2017-2018 Villanova (national champions)
2. 2016 Soul (Arena Bowl champions)
3. 2017 Soul (Arena Bowl champions)
4. 2020-2021 Sixers (49-23, #1 seed with a .681 winning percentage)
5. 2022-2023 Sixers (54-28, most regular-season wins since Allen Iverson in 2000-2001)
6. 2018-2019 Sixers (51 wins, lost to title-winning Raptors on the quadruple doink)
7. 2010-2011 Flyers (47 wins, .646 points percentage)
8. 2019-2020 Flyers (promising AV team derailed by COVID)
9. 2011-2012 Flyers (47 wins, the Jaromir Jagr season)
10. 2017-2018 Sixers (52 wins, ran into Celtics in second round)

A couple of notes here:

First, you may be rolling your eyes at the inclusion of Villanova, but note that in the second championship season, home games were played at Wells Fargo Center because the Pavilion was being renovated. They went 11-1 in South Philly, losing only to St. John’s in the Big East regular season.

Second, the name did not switch from Wachovia Center to Wells Fargo Center until July of 2010, so the Flyers had just completed their run to the Stanley Cup Finals, and therefore that team can’t be included in the list. They would have been right near the top, the squad that lost to the Blackhawks.

Third, the six titles that the Wings won took place prior to 2010. They have been mediocre since returning in 2019 and don’t have any seasons worthy of the list.

Fourth, there’s an asterisk that goes on that 2016 Soul season. Their home arena was the Wells Fargo Center for most of the year, but they played their final regular season home game and two playoff games at the PPL Center up in Allentown because the WFC was hosting the Democratic National Convention. The 2017 team played every game at WFC and Arena Bowl 30 was played in South Philly.

From there, we can agree or disagree on the list order, but I put the Soul above the Sixers and Flyers because those teams won championships. Small beans or not, they were 31-4 over those two seasons, playoffs included, going back-to-back in the process.

You can argue about which of those three Flyers teams is the best, since they had similar points percentages and all went out in the “second round,” depending on how you want to describe the COVID playoffs. Ultimately, it’s been an underwhelming 15 seasons for the local ice hockey team, as you know.

Finally, for the Sixers, it’s about putting in order each disappointment of a post-Process team. The squad that choked against the Hawks had the best winning percentage in 20 years, so that team goes to the top. Then I did the good James Harden team, the Jimmy Butler team, and the Embiid/Simmons team that turned the corner.