Sixers drop plans for arena near Chinatown

In a stunning reversal, the Philadelphia 76ers Sunday abandoned plans to build a stadium in City Center, Philadelphia and instead will proceed with demolishing their current home at the Wells Fargo Center.

It plans to build a new stadium to house the basketball team and the Philadelphia Flyers, after they struck a deal with Comcast Spectacor.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on the deal this morning and AsAmNews has independently confirmed a new agreement has been reached.

This means the controversial plan just approved by the City Council to build a new arena just outside of Philadelphia Chinatown is right now off the table.

The arena proposed for Center City area at the Fashion City Mall has long been opposed by Chinatown residents who fear they would be squeezed out by higher rents, gentrification and increased traffic.

Late today, the The No Arena in the Heart of Our City Coalition said “We’re relieved to hear that the nightmare of a Center City Sixers arena will not haunt our city anymore. To every Philadelphian who called, marched, testified, and warned City Hall that this was a raw deal: This win belongs to you.”

They are planning a news conference Monday afternoon.

Asian Americans United also released a statement to AsAmNews declaring they warned about the dangers of “play[ing] in the viper pit with billionaires” and advised the city government take this as a learning opportunity to “respond to people’s needs instead of corporate greed.”

“Over the past two years, Philly built a movement not only to save Chinatown, but to defend our entire city from predatory billionaires who saw us for a profit playground, and tens of thousands of Philadelphians showed up.”

Philadelphia residents, Chinatown community groups have been fighting the stadium plans for over a year, citing examples of other Chinatowns that have not survived the gentrification and negative economic impacts after the construction of nearby stadiums.

It’s not the first development proposal that Phiadelphia Chinatown has had to organize against- the community has also fought off a proposed baseball stadium, a casino and unsuccessfully against a convention center and the Vine Street Expressway, which split the former Chinatown neighborhood in half.

The Philadelphia Building & Construction Trades Council told NBC Philadelphia it supports the new agreement to demolish Wells Fargo Center to make way for a new arena.

“We actually get more jobs. For the building trades, this is good news,” said Ryan Boyer, president of the Trades Council.

Councilmember Mark Squilla represents Chinatown and introduced the original proposal to the council. He told the Inquirer he had nothing to do with the new deal but is not upset about it.

“This might end up actually being the best-case scenario. We can reimagine Market Street without an arena, have people committed to … investing in it and still have a new arena in South Philly.”

However, not everyone supports the new deal.

“I’m so livid right now I don’t even know what to do,” said Jimmy Harrity, one of the councilmembers who supported the Chinatown arena, said to the Inquirer “I feel as though I was used as a pawn.”

AsAmNews is published by the non-profit, Asian American Media Inc.

Happy Lunar New Year. Great news. We have met our $5,000 matching grant challenge with less than 3 full days to go. Now let’s get to the next milestone. Let’s surpass our goal by 20%. With your help, that’s achievable. All tax-deductible donations will go toward fully funding an editor position at AsAmNews and to support our reporting. You can make your tax-deductible donations here via credit card, debit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal and Venmo. Stock donations and donations via DAFs are also welcomed.

Please also follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and X.