The Aftermath of 76 Place: Expert Panel Envisions Future for Market East, Philadelphia Officials and the Sixers

Sport business experts and community leaders discussed ramifications of the Philadelphia 76ers arena plans as part of LeBow’s Societal Impact series.

The event, “The 76ers’ Proposed New Arena: Who Wins, Who Loses?,” highlighted the controversy behind plans to build in the Market East neighborhood of the city and the NBA organization’s about-face that shifted those plans to South Philadelphia, stunning elected officials who supported the initial idea.

Panelists included local business owner Joanna Kan ’00, CPA; Professor and Department Head of Sport Business Joel Maxcy, PhD; former City Councilmember David Oh; Philly Vote Chairman Richard A. Smith, MBA ’21, and PHLY Sports Sixers insider Devon Givens.

Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment (HBSE), which has owned the 76ers since 2011, floated development of a new arena soon after purchasing the team. 76 Place at Market East was officially announced in 2022, and despite public opposition due to potential effects on neighboring Chinatown and traffic congestion in Center City, Mayor Cherelle Parker supported the project, and the Philadelphia City Council approved HBSE’s plans in December 2024. The approval came amidst HBSE threats to move the 76ers to Camden, N.J., if a deal couldn’t get done in Market East.

Just weeks following council approval, HBSE abandoned its initial plans and announced a partnership with Comcast to build a new arena at the South Philadelphia Sports Complex.

David Oh, who served on the Philadelphia City Council from 2012 to 2023 prior to running for mayor, recalled his early conversations with Comcast as the organization and the 76ers first plotted their next moves beyond the team’s current home, the Wells Fargo Center.

Oh said Comcast officials cited a $3 billion development surrounding a new arena, which would include hotels, condominiums, an outdoor concert hall and a shopping center. At that time, Oh said, Comcast had already spent over $200 million on the proposed development.

“[Comcast] invested a certain amount of money, and I guess they expected the Sixers to pay for the improvements, and the Sixers were saying ‘We’re not going to pay for that. We want some independence.’ They were in a negotiating phase,” he said.

While HBSE and Comcast negotiated behind closed doors, the current city council was left out of the loop, which Smith said would cost councilmembers public trust and potentially result in losing reelection.

“I believe in the next couple years, we’ll probably see new city councilmembers,” said Smith, who is president of business and political consulting firm R.A. Smith Group. “They stuck their necks out and said ‘We need to do this,’ and [the 76ers] sold them a dream, and a dream is not going to happen.”

The original Market East arena plans promised long-sought revitalization for the neighborhood following the bankruptcy of the Fashion District mall in 2020 and the 2015 closure of the Fashion District’s predecessor, the Gallery.

Mayor Parker called the potential of an arena in the neighborhood a “win for Philadelphia,” but is the city on the losing end of HBSE’s decision to walk away from Market East and partner with Comcast?

“Sometimes we think, oh, ‘We’re going to build an arena and have major league sports, and that’s going to drive an economy.’ Really, a thriving economy brings major league sports to a city, not the other way around,” said Maxcy, president of the International Association of Sports Economists.

Along with the new arena in South Philly, HBSE and Comcast announced plans to “immediately focus” on Market East, though no concrete details have been released. The news coverage surrounding Market East has put the neighborhood in a major spotlight, and despite lacking firm plans for revitalization, Kan says that increased public awareness has the potential to launch something special in the area.

“People have a lot of feedback after this, so if we can take advantage of the opportunity, you will get people excited about it,” said Kan, who founded Philadelphia-based wine collections company Blue Story LLC. “It’s almost perfect timing, perfect marketing.”

As for the 76ers, the organization has been on the receiving end of criticism throughout the whole arena ordeal. Their brand name has spent the last several years associated by some as a threat to Chinatown, and some fans are at odds with ownership over threats to move the team out of Philly.

But now, with this chapter of the arena fiasco behind them, Givens pointed to a specific way the team can reconnect with its fan base and the city: winning.

“In the end, winning matters, so until the new arena is done, and let’s say the Sixers and the Flyers get their acts together, the [Wells Fargo Center] is going to be just fine until the new thing comes.”