PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers have a new teammate in their bid to new $1.3 billion arena city center.
Mayor Cherelle Parker announced Wednesday that she has reached a deal with team owners to keep the NBA franchise in the city and will send it to the City Council. The decision comes despite objections from nearby Chinatown residents and just weeks after the New Jersey governor offered $400 million in tax breaks to build the site across the river in Camden.
“This is a historic agreement,” Parker said in a video posted on the social platform X. “I wholeheartedly believe this is the right deal for the people of Philadelphia. To the people of Chinatown, know that I hear you. We have the best Chinatown in the United States and I am committed to working together to support it.”
Team owners say their planned 76 Place would improve a struggling retail corridor near City Hall and benefit the city’s public transportation system. They have vowed not to renew the lease on their current home, a circa-1996 arena in the city’s South Philadelphia sports complex, when their lease expires in 2031.
The team currently leases the arena from Comcast Spectacor, which also owns the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers, who also play there. Instead, the Sixers’ owners want their own, more modern facility that they can also rent out for concerts and other events.
Josh Harris, a managing partner of the ownership group, Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, has said the Sixers will build a privately funded facility that “strengthens local community ties through investments that prioritize equity, inclusivity and accessibility.”
A spokesperson said Wednesday that the owners are grateful for Parker’s support of their proposal “and look forward to working with the City Council to take the next steps.”
Chinatown activists who have felt the pressure of development repeatedly since at least the 1990s had called on the mayor to reject the plan. Only now are they getting some relief from a sunken freeway that bisected their community in 1991, in the form of a $159 million grant to build a park over the six-lane road and reconnect the area.
Parker, who inherited the 76ers’ cause when she took office in January, had promised to consider their input. Activists complained Wednesday that she was ignoring it. Some of them took to City Hall with homemade lanterns to “shine a light” on the potential impacts. They say the project will increase car traffic in their pedestrian-friendly neighborhood and displace vulnerable residents — the elderly, low-income families and new immigrants.
Debbie Wei of the Save Chinatown Coalition said the mayor alone should not decide “whether our community should live or die.”
“This fight is far from over,” she said in a statement. “We are going to take this fight, and we are going to take it to the limit. It has begun.”
Comcast Spectacor Chairman and CEO Daniel J. Hilferty said they will keep the door open for the 76ers while the plan is implemented, while also working with the Phillies to expand entertainment venues and courts at the South Philadelphia complex.
“Regardless, we always want what’s best for Philadelphia,” Hilferty said in a statement.
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AP sports reporter Dan Gelston contributed to this report from Philadelphia.