PHILADELPHIA -- The fate of the Philadelphia Phantoms remains very much unknown.
Comcast-Spectacor, owners of the Phantoms and the Philadelphia Flyers, unveiled at a news conference on Tuesday afternoon preliminary plans for a new arena-area retail complex that potentially could lead to the demolition of the Wachovia Spectrum, the Phantoms' home for 12 seasons.
Firm details on a cost and a timetable for the proposed project were not revealed. An answer on the Spectrum's fate is now not expected until next month.
"We just wanted to tell everybody what we're up to," Comcast-Spectacor chairman Ed Snider said of why a press conference that was short of firm details was held. The Delaware County (Pa.) Daily Times first broke news of the proposed project broke earlier this month.
While it does seem highly likely that the Phantoms will return for the 2008-09 season -- the team, after all, did advertise season-ticket packages for next season prior to home games this past weekend -- their future beyond then remains very unclear.
"We don't want to lose them," Snider said of the Phantoms. "We think it's a big advantage. That's why we're still studying it."
But the event did not resolve any questions that Phantoms fans have.
Among the proposals in discussion is a plan that would involve razing the Spectrum and building a luxury hotel -- which Snider called "a very special hotel" -- on the site of the building that housed the Flyers from 1967 through the 1995-96 season and hosts about 125 events annually.
None of the four artistic renderings of the new complex that were unveiled on Tuesday included the Spectrum. In fact, in one of the renderings, a hotel stood on the Spectrum's current site. But officials acknowledged that building the proposed hotel elsewhere in the proposed project would be a possibility, too.
Moreover, Comcast-Spectacor officials vigourously insisted that no final decisions have been made and that the Spectrum remaining standing still could be a possibility. However, maintenance of the 41-year-old arena would require repairs and upgrades that are believed to be in the millions of dollars.
The Spectrum shares a large patch of land in South Philadelphia with the Flyers' 12-year-old Wachovia Center, a four-year-old baseball stadium and a football stadium that opened in 2003. Blended in between the four facilities is a wide swath of parking lots. The proposed new retail complex, which would be called "Philly Live!," would be placed in the parking lot between the two hockey arenas.
If plans for the hotel come to fruition, the new project could extend northward and feature a hotel on the land on which the Spectrum now sits.
Comcast-Spectacor president and chief operating officer Peter Luukko said that the corporation is considering its options.
"We all love the Spectrum, but it's 40 years old," Luukko said. "We've been able, fortunately, to keep the Spectrum going, and it's going well. But it is a 40-year-old building, so we have to put a lot of money into it. But we're making money, so we have to weigh what's best for the future."
The rumours have created uncertainty among some Phantoms fans. The notion of the Phantoms potentially being a lame-duck team for a season or two also does not sit well with some Phantoms fans.
If the Phantoms are evicted from the Spectrum, their new destination is very much unclear
Proximity-wise, AHL-calibre buildings in nearby Reading, Pa. and Trenton, N.J. would be attractive, but both locales present challenges. Both cities are currently home to ECHL clubs, for one thing.
The Trenton facility is home to the New Jersey Devils' ECHL affiliate, and rumours persist that New Jersey's AHL affiliate may not be long for its current home in Lowell, Mass., where the Lowell Devils play to the smallest crowds in the AHL. Talk has swirled for some time in AHL circles that Trenton may be a potential new home for New Jersey's AHL affiliate if the Devils opt to pull out of Lowell.
New Jersey exercised its option this past August to remain in Lowell through the 2009-10 season, but it is believed that if New Jersey wants to head elsewhere, resistance from Lowell would not be a stumbling block.
The building in Reading, an hour west of Philadelphia is an SMG-managed facility, and SMG is a chief rival of Global Spectrum, Comcast-Spectacor's arena-management branch, in the arena-management business. Reading is also inside the 50-mile radius territory of the Hershey Bears, the AHL's senior-most franchise. An AHL moving into Hershey territory would require the Bears' approval, though there is precedent for existing AHL clubs granting approval for another franchise moving into their territory.
Another SMG-managed building, Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J., housed an ECHL club earlier this decade that played to poor crowds before departing for Stockton, Calif. in 2005. The beach resort city is an hour east of Philadelphia.
Visions of an expanded sports complex apparently have been under consideration for some time.
When the Wachovia Center opened in 1996, Comcast-Spectacor chairman Ed Snider envisioned a set-up that would have connected the Spectrum and the Wachovia Center with a retail mix, but those plans never came to be.
But Snider appeared torn by the thought of knocking down the building that he helped bring to life.
"Let me be clear about one thing," Snider stated in his opening comments. "I'm very, very proud of the Spectrum. It's my baby. In its heyday, it was called 'America's Showplace.' For me to even consider replacing the Spectrum with something new, it would have to be a very, very special opportunity, one that is good for all of us who work, live and come to events."
Relocation from the Philadelphia market, a market that helped give rise to AHL big-city depots in Toronto, Chicago and Houston, is also an issue for the AHL.
"Potentially to lose a market like Philly would be of concern to the American Hockey League," AHL president Dave Andrews said by phone when contacted last week after the news first broke.
"It's meant an awful lot to our league. It's been a terrific market for us and also a terrific organization for us."
But Andrews acknowledged that any decision would be out of his hands.
"If that's sort of on the horizon for Spectacor...it may make sense for them. They have [an older] building, prime real estate and a lot of traffic through there."
"Don't take this the wrong way, but it's outside of my control and it's outside of the league's control."
Still, Andrews expressed faith that Comcast-Spectacor would make a decision that would prove beneficial to both the corporation and to the AHL.
"If Comcast-Spectacor and the Flyers...make a determination that they would like to relocate it to another market, my guess is that they're going to relocate it to a really solid market, if and when the time comes, and it will be a successful franchise."
"The Phantoms have been one of the best-run franchises in the AHL for a long time, and I don't think that will change if the location changes. I have every confidence that the Flyers and Peter Luukko and others who are involved in that decision will make a good decision in both respects. First of all, for the Spectrum itself, and secondly, for the future of the Phantoms. I frankly don't have a huge concern that it will necessarily be a loss for the AHL simply because of the people involved.
"I'm convinced that whatever direction they choose to go, they'll make a good decision, just like they did when they put the Phantoms in the Spectrum. I believe strongly that whatever direction they choose will ultimately probably be a good one for the Phantoms and for our league."
