The Philadelphia 76ers Are Going To Cure All Their Playoffs Woes By Building A New $1.3B Arena In Center City
NBC -- The Philadelphia 76ers plan to build a privately funded arena in Center City at the current site of Fashion District Philadelphia.
Sixers managing partners Josh Harris and David Blitzer made the announcement in a press release Thursday morning, saying a new development company, 76 Devcorp, will develop the $1.3 billion arena. The sports and entertainment venue would be located on a “portion” of the Fashion District.
It wasn't Ben Simmons. It wasn't drafting Markelle Fultz. It wasn't trading Jimmy Butler. It wasn't James Harden going missing in the playoffs. It wasn't Joel Embiid constantly getting injured, whether it's his own fault or not.
No. It was none of the above. The real reason why the Philadelphia 76ers men's professional basketball team continue to shit their pants in the playoffs is because of the arena. The Wells Fargo Center is cursed. I am sure of it. Ever since the city of Philadelphia knocked down the Spectrum, just think about what has happened in that dog shit arena. The Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup in the Wells Fargo Center after beating the Flyers in game 6 of the 2010 Stanley Cup Final. They have been dog shit ever since. The Sixers haven't made it past the 2nd round of the playoffs. The Kixx cease to exist. The Wings left town for a few years, came back, and still haven't won anything. Wing Bowl is no more. Basically everything has been a disaster since we tore down the Spectrum, and anybody who plays in Wells Fargo Center has been cursed for it.
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So it's time for the Sixers to move on from the curse. Unfortunately they still have until 2031 on their lease with Wells Fargo Center, but maybe just announcing that they are moving will be enough to break the curse. You hope that it's just a haunted house situation and not something that follows you around from arena to arena. But I guess we'll just have to wait and see on that one.
Either way, this new arena is something that seems awesome in theory but the practicality of the whole thing? Well let's just say I'm pretty damn skeptical at the moment. Don't get me wrong, the rendering of the new arena looks sick and it'll definitely create a new buzz in Center City to have the team playing there. As much as I love the Sports Complex, it was always better suited for Eagles and Phillies tailgates anyway. And putting this arena right next to Jefferson Station makes it so much easier to get to as long as you're taking the train in.
It'll be all the idiots who decide to drive into the city for the game that make this an absolute disaster. All rails lead to Jefferson Station. It couldn't possibly be easier to whether you're in Doylestown or Trenton or Swarthmore or Chestnut Hill.
The only issue is going to be…well…obviously we have to talk about this at some point here. Philly has turned into an absolute hellscape as far as safety is concerned. Murders, shootings, carjackings galore. You can't go anywhere in the city right now without running the risk of accidentally finding yourself in the middle of some shooting. Hell, there was just one in the 15th street station the other day. So unless the leaders in the city finally figure out a way to make it a place that people can feel relatively safe again, well then you're going to get thousands and thousands of people driving into these games and causing the worst traffic nightmare you could ever imagine. Not to get political here or anything, but there will be a new mayor in office by the time this arena is up and running. Hell, there might even be 2 new mayors by the time this thing is finally up. So it'll hopefully be nice to have someone running the city who doesn't literally tell the media that he can't wait to not be mayor anymore.
At the end of the day, I'm going with heavily cautiously optimistic about the new arena. I think it has the potential to be sick, just as long as the powers that be take care of all the shit the city needs to handle in order to make it work.
Sidenote: Once this arena is up, I feel like you should have to pass a test before entering Reading Terminal Market. As long as you know how to maneuver you're way around through there, you are good to go in. But if you just wander around aimlessly and case jam ups? Get lost. Go to the nearest Wawa.