The Philadelphia 76ers along with the Philadelphia Flyers have revealed the first glimpse at their future home in South Philadelphia.
Exterior renderings were released today by the Sixers and Flyers of the new arena that will host not only their games, but also the games of the future Philadelphia WNBA team as well as concerts and live entertainment. In fact, the proposed arena — to be built on the grounds of the former Spectrum — is targeted to open ahead of the start of that WNBA expansion team’s
inaugural season in 2030.
If the new arena is to take up the specific footprint of the former Spectrum, that would mean a build adjacent to Stateside Live! along Pattison Avenue. This seems to be the plan, based on this other image rendering found on the Philly Arena website:
As someone that has traveled to a game at Xfinity Mobile Arena by car recently, it makes me wonder how much of a nightmare parking is going to be once that large of an area is cordoned off for construction adjacent to the current arena… but I digress.
So far, there’s no official start date for construction. According to ThePhillyArena.com, the hope is to break ground in “early 2027, pending the necessary approvals from City Council and the city.”
The new arena will be a 50-50 partnership between Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment (Sixers) and Comcast Spectacor (Flyers), after the former spent more than a decade as a tenant of the latter at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
“Philly fans deserve the best arena in the world, and we are excited to partner with Comcast to deliver just that. This privately funded arena will be the home to moments and memories that define this city for generations,” said Josh Harris, Co-Founder of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment and Managing Partner of the Philadelphia 76ers.
This would be the city’s largest fully privately funded project ever, with the new arena anticipated to create nearly 15,000 jobs and generate nearly $6 billion in economic activity over the next 10 years, with hundreds of millions in new tax revenue directly benefiting the School District of Philadelphia and the city, per the team’s release.
Not only is the arena planned for the Spectrum’s grounds, but is also designed with the history of the former arena in mind. The arena’s architecture draws inspiration from the shape of the former Spectrum, which hosted the Flyers and the 76ers for nearly three decades. The release further explains plans for fan plazas and gathering points within the over half-acre of outdoor space, with options for the teams to extend the restaurant footprint with food-and-beverage pavilions.
There are still a lot of questions to be answered regarding when construction will actually begin, how it will work logistically taking up so much of the parking space of the current Xfinity Mobile Arena, and more. But for now, you can read the full release here and check out the proposed arena’s website here.
