Notlef Felton went to South Philadelphia sports complex since he was a child, cheering on local teams at Veterans Stadium and Spectrum.

Growing up, he saw these stadiums torn down and replaced. But what was true of the complex then is true today: four teams, three sites, one venue.

“It’s part of Philadelphia. It’s part of who we are,” said Felton, 55, who now lives near Pittsburgh and was meeting with friends earlier this month outside Lincoln Financial Field before the Eagles’ game against the Jaguars. Jacksonville.

Now the list of stadiums and districts could be reset for the first time in 50 years, if the Sixers move to a new $1.55 billion arena they propose to build four miles north of City Center.

Mayor Cherelle L.Parker and the team says the project will help revive subsidence on Market Street East, and the City Council is set to open hearings Tuesday. A vote on building the 18,500-seat arena could happen before the end of the year.

The Sixers have said that no matter what happens, they will not play in South Philadelphia after 2031, when their lease expires at the Wells Fargo Center.

Their release would take Philadelphia back to an earlier time, before the advent of the now so familiar neighborhood. What Philadelphians consider normal was once radical: the consolidation of large teams in one location where large numbers of cars and people could easily fit.

Until 1971, when Richard M. Nixon was running the White House, Jim Morrison died in Paris and a coffee company borrowed the name of a Moby-Dick character to open his first Starbucks store — the teams were dispersed.

The Eagles played at U-shaped Franklin Field on the east end of the University of Pennsylvania campus. They had moved there from Connie Mack Stadium, the North Philadelphia home of the Phillies. The Sixers played at Convention Hall, also known as the Civic Center, and sometimes at West Philadelphia at the Philadelphia Arena, which hosted everything from wrestling to rodeos.

The now-defunct JFK Stadium was the only stadium in South Philadelphia when the Spectrum opened in 1967. Veterans Stadium followed four years later.

“Everything was in one place,” said Dave Coskey, a former vice president of the Sixers. “If you went to a game, you went to South Philadelphia.”

Does a stadium district make sense?

Today, the usefulness of the stadium district depends on who speaks:

For some, it’s a model of convenience, easily accessible by metro and highway and home to one of the largest parking areas in North America. Traffic is complicated, but 22,000 spaces mean there is always a space.

For others, the complex is an asphalt desert, devoid of people and activity except on match days and concert eveningsa great example of how sports arenas do not generate much economic impact.

It hosts but only one sports bar, Xfinity Live!

“I would like to see Xfinity expand in some way, whether the building expands or there is another location,” said Daniel Klapa, 55, of Marltonwho as a kid played football games at the Spectrum and the Vet, and now attends almost every Eagles game.

The Spectrum gave way to the Wells Fargo Center in 1996 to become the home of the Sixers and Flyers. The Phillies moved to Citizens Bank Park in 2004, the Eagles to Lincoln Financial Field in 2003. JFK Stadium was demolished in 1992.

“Philadelphia is one of the premier sports markets in the country, but we have the least planned sports district,” said Janice Woodcock, planning director for Mayor John Street who now runs the architecture firm Woodcock Design. “No one has been able to take this problem as a whole and turn it into an asset.”

According to her and other experts, a Sixers departure would primarily impact the Wells Fargo Center and owner Comcast Spectacor, which also owns the Flyers.

“It won’t be the end of the athletic district if they leave,” Woodcock said. “But we need to think about how we’re going to program this remaining building.”

Comcast Spectacor would lose rent from the Sixers, as well as revenue from game day sales, including parking, food, beer and merchandise. A city-sponsored impact study predicted that the center, if it hosted only the Flyers, suffer up to 25% loss in revenue from luxury suites and that money coming from a naming rights deal – Banking giant Wells Fargo will not renew its contract in 2025 — could fall by 30%.

For the complex itself, the departure of a team probably won’t make much difference, said Rick Eckstein, a sociology professor at Villanova University and co-author of Public dollars, private stadiums: the battle to build sports stadiums.

The buildings aren’t going anywhere. The neighborhood itself has no inherent attraction. It’s the games, shows and concerts that attract people, and without an event taking place, “there’s no reason for people to go there, unless they want to walk across acres of parking lots”.

“It started by accident”

In the mid-1960s, Lou Scheinfeld recalled, he was helping Ed Snider find a place to build an arena for an NHL expansion team, soon to be called the Flyers. He went to City Hall to meet with Council President Paul D’Ortona.

“We don’t know where we’re going to build this thing,” Scheinfeld recalls.

“I have the perfect place,” D’Ortona replied. “In South Philadelphia. There’s a ton of land there.

He saw little around Broad and Pattison, except for a few warehouses and a drive-in movie theater.

At Broad and Hartranft streets was the Aquarama Aquarium, “The Theater of the Sea,” a fading tourist attraction that charged patrons $1 to see exotic fish and dolphins. The announcer of the show was Gene Hart, later the legendary voice of the Flyers.

The only large and imposing structure was John F. Kennedy Stadium, recently renamed in honor of the fallen president. It had opened in the spring of 1926 as Sesquicentennial Stadium, as part of Philadelphia’s deficit celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. It has hosted everything from world heavyweight boxing to the annual Army-Navy match to the 1985 Live Aid concert.

Scheinfeld, then vice president of the hockey team and later president of the Spectrum and the Sixers, remembers wondering if fans would drive all the way to South Philadelphia because the Broad Street subway line n had not yet been extended. Still, he reasoned, the site was a reasonable 25-minute drive from downtown and easily accessible from New Jersey and Delaware.

In their first game at the new Spectrum on October 18, 1967, the Sixers defeated the Los Angeles Lakers 103-87. The Flyers made their home debut the next night with a 1–0 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The city’s two other teams were also on the road. In 1964, city voters approved a $25 million bond issue – the equivalent of more than a quarter of a billion today – to build a new stadium that would house both the Eagles and the Phillies.

Famed sportswriter Red Smith hailed its arrival: “This southern end of the city, a no-man’s land when Sesqui Stadium (JFK) was built but now quickly accessible by highways and bridges, will then have a complex modern entertainment venue as imposing as any in the country. .”

Over the next few years, more than half a dozen additional professional teams called the complex home: Atoms and Fury football, Wings lacrosse, Freedoms tennis, Soul indoor football and Fever soccer. The Philadelphia Stars of the short-lived United States Football League played at the Vet, and the Philadelphia Bell of the World Football League lasted just over a season at JFK Stadium.

“It started by accident,” Scheinfeld said, “and then it became, ‘What a great idea!'”

The future of the sports complex

Few cities have grouped all four teams, although it is common to group several stadiums in the same location.

The Baltimore Ravens’ M&T Bank Stadium is located next to Oriole Park at Camden Yards. In Seattle, it’s a five-minute walk from the Mariners’ T-Mobile Park to the Seahawks’ Lumen Field. And in Detroit, the Lions’ Ford Field is next to the Tigers’ Comerica Park, with Little Caesars Arena, home of the Red Wings and Pistons, a half-mile away.

“If you’re a city or a state or a county, if you’re looking at investing in these stadiums and arenas, it makes more sense to consolidate them into one area,” said Eckstein, the Villanova professor. “You get layoffs.”

For example, he says, the same road can serve several arenas located in a sports complex. On the other hand, Eckstein noted, the Philadelphia district “is sort of an example of how investments in stadiums and arenas don’t generate ancillary investments.”

Philadelphia’s four-team roster has already come close to ending.

The Eagles almost left for Phoenix in 1984, and the Sixers considered moving to Camden in 1989. The Phillies looked at locations in Center City before deciding to stay in South Philadelphia, opening Citizens Bank Park in 2004.

The departure of just one team “probably doesn’t make a big difference” to the district itself, said Professor Victor Matheson, who studies sports economics at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts.

“The good thing about having a sports complex is that it’s good for public transportation and infrastructure, and it’s good for parking,” he said. “But the fact that it’s not a thriving, mixed-use residential area shows some of the downsides.”

Earlier this year, the Phillies and Comcast Spectacor proposed turning some of the unrestricted parking lots into a $2.5 billion entertainment zone filled with restaurants, hotels, apartments and stores.

“Our commitment to this exciting project remains unwavering,” said Michael Harris, Phillies vice president of marketing and new media, citing the opportunity “to create the mixed-use development tied to the nation’s most important stadium, even of the world.” »

Phil Laws, chief operating officer of Comcast Spectacor, described the proposed development as “a world-class destination for live, work, sports and entertainment” that would be “a key contributor to Philadelphia’s growth.”

“Our plan remains on track and we look forward to sharing more details in the coming months. »

Some Philadelphia sports fans can’t wait. Others, not so much.

Edward Callahan, 78, of Northeast Philadelphiais concerned about a loss of tailgating space. He attended his first Eagles game in 1954 at Connie Mack Stadium and is now known for his large Eagles-themed RV that goes to home games.

Still, he said, it’s too early to get excited about a big change that would only happen “if the plan is ever finalized — and that’s an ‘if.’