What is 76 Place and how does it impact Philadelphia?

By: Charlie Lai

You may have heard about the plans to build a new basketball arena for Philadelphia's basketball team the 76ers, but is it all what it seems? The city of Philadelphia wants to create a new stadium/arena for their basketball team the 76ers because they currently do not have a stadium of their own. 

At the moment, the 76ers share the Wells Fargo Center with the Philadelphia Flyers, so, between games, they have to change the field from an ice hockey field to a basketball court. It can be frustrating for staff to make major changes to the arena so often, especially because the basketball season and hockey season overlap. The solution to this is to give the 76ers their very own arena. 

Where would this new arena be? The city wants to build the arena in the center city, in a place called the fashion district, or the East market. They believe that it can economically revitalize the palace, as it is doing poorly economically in a place so close to the center city. This 1.55 billion dollar project will not cost taxpayers any money, according to the official website advocating for the arena. 

Apart from being just a sports arena, the design for the sports stadium would also be a retail mall year round, and during games, the ground floor will still be available to nonticket holders. There will be public transportation that is easily available to the public and they estimate that 50% of people will arrive at the stadium using it.

While also revitalizing the fashion district, the arena would create many new economic opportunities in the form of jobs. The administration wants to focus on creating job opportunities for the African American community. The construction alone would create an estimated 9,100 jobs in construction alone. Once the stadium opens permanently, it will create 1000 permanent new jobs. 

The Philadelphia Mayor, Cherelle Parker, has endorsed the creation of the new sports facility. This is likely because of the tax benefits and income that the 76 place has told Mayor Parker about. According to the administration of the 76 place, it is estimated that the new arena would provide 1.5 billion dollars in new tax revenue over 30 years. 

On the 76 Palace's official website, they say it is “Too good to be true, but it’s true". Many people only believe the first half of the statement due to the enormous amount of drawbacks and negative repercussions the arena would have. A new survey shows that 69% of Philadelphians are opposed to the arena. 

The administration paid for an impact study of the arena to be done by an outside organization, so they could get fair, unbiased information they could tell the public to try and gain the support of the public. WHYY says “Consultants were not ‘expected to provide specific recommendations for or against the arena proposal, but to provide independent, neutral evaluations,’ according to a news release from the Parker administration.”

Contrary to the economic benefit the arena proposes, a new analysis from the University of Washington predicts the city would lose more than a billion dollars. The official report from the impact study also says the income generated will be much less than the $1.55 billion, coming in at 390 million dollars. The impact study also states that hundreds of small businesses and thousands of jobs will likely be lost. With all the negative economic effects, it will only be billionaires who would benefit from the arena. 

Another concern of the public is the traffic congestion. If more than 40% of people drive to the arena, the streets would become very congested. This statistic will be very hard to accomplish as our area is very reliant on vehicular traffic. Even if we can accomplish this, there is no guarantee that the areas nearby will not be affected by this. This also worries Philadelphians because they are concerned about ambulances getting to the hospital, which is 1.5 blocks away.

The biggest concern that is raising the most attention is the two marginalized groups that the 76 places would affect. If 76 Place is built, it will essentially cause the deterioration of both Chinatown and the Gayborhood. It will indirectly affect local businesses and residents and lead to the loss and eventually deterioration of both of these neighborhoods. Both Delaware and New Jersey have reached out about building a stadium in a different location, however, Mayor Parker insists on keeping 76 in Pennsylvania.

76 place has proposed a community benefits agreement which they claim will mitigate these issues with things such as community programs and cultural preservation, support for and promotion of local small businesses, and programs to promote expanded affordability, however, critics are saying that these proposed agreements are vague and would likely not help. 

Many complexities go into deciding large infrastructure such as the proposed arena, and there are pros and cons to each side of the argument. Some people say that it could economically benefit our city and generate income while others say it could result in loss of money, community, and business.