David Adelman, a Sixers co-owner and the lead developer of the team's planned downtown arena, outlines his vision for the development during a public meeting held in Philadelphia in November 2023.Comcast Spectacor, concerned about the Sixers’ plan to leave the Wells Fargo Center and build a new arena downtown, hired a national real estate adviser to study the implications of having two big, competing venues in Philadelphia.
Adding a second arena would attract only eight to 12 additional concerts and shows to the Philadelphia market each year., where the Target Center in Minneapolis is home to the NBA’s Timberwolves, while the Xcel Energy Center, 10 miles away in St. Paul, hosts the NHL’s Wild. The proximity of competing venues allows promoters to negotiate 30% to 40% discounts, hurting both venues.
“It’s not totally unprecedented ,” said Dave Brooks, senior director of live music and touring at Billboard, the music-and-entertainment magazine, “but there’s only so many arena touring shows each year. Definitely Philly is a must-play city, but there’s not really any evidence that another arena is going to attract more concerts to a market. They’re probably going to be going after a lot of the same stuff.”on the community- and economic-impact of putting an arena next to Chinatown.
Hunden Partners projected that only about 15% of fans would take public transit, roughly the same percentage as travel to events at the Wells Fargo Center now, and that traffic gridlock will grip Market Street East before and after events. To park the average number of cars that now go to Sixers games would require the use of every public parking space within 0.4 miles of 10th and Market, the study said.
Much of the document focuses on the financial effect of having two arenas, one hosting the Flyers, the other the Sixers, each competing for additional events to fill their calendars. Splitting the revenues would dramatically limit the ability of both venues to pay for renovations and improvements, requiring an infusion of taxpayer funding every 15 to 20 years, the report said. Taxpayers in some places have declined to provide those subsidies.