Philly branch of the NAACP endorses Sixers’ plan for a downtown arena

The Philadelphia branch of the NAACP formally endorsed the Sixers’ plans to build a $1.55 billion downtown arena on Tuesday, saying the project would bring jobs and economic opportunity to Black and brown communities.

NAACP and Sixers leaders highlighted the synergies between the civil-rights group’s mission and what the development team says is its commitment to deliver measurable, beneficial outcomes for Black people and organizations.

“We here at the Philadelphia branch of the NAACP are excited to be a teammate,” said Catherine Hicks, president of the local chapter.

At times the announcement felt like a pep rally, propelled by the beat of drummers and the swing of dancers, the crowd of team and NAACP officials, and students and staff at the String Theory Schools campus in Center City, where the event took place. Franklin the Dog, the Sixers mascot, cheered everyone on.

David Gould, chief diversity and impact officer for Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Sixers, said the two organizations began talking a few months ago with the basketball team sharing “our vision for the project, our commitment to equitable development, and the different programs that we’ve talked about around economic opportunity.”

Sixers part-owner and lead arena developer David Adelman told the crowd that Black residents make up about 40% of Philadelphia’s population yet own only 6% of its businesses.

“We just don’t think that’s good enough,” Adelman said.

The Sixers say they’ll ensure that 40% of food-and-beverage concessions at the new arena will have Black owners. They also have pledged to spend $2 million to prepare Black-owned businesses for that undertaking.

The arena has been endorsed by the Black Clergy of Philadelphia and Vicinity and by the African American Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. Members of the building-trades labor unions, eager for what the team promises will be thousands of construction jobs, have also voiced support.

Shortly after the news conference, Bishop Dwayne Royster, executive director of POWER Interfaith and a member of the Save Chinatown Coalition, called the team’s promises “window dressing” designed “to make the enrichment of three [team owner] billionaires easier to swallow.”

“Don’t be fooled by the promise of jobs for African Americans in the city,” he said. “We will not become a thriving city with part-time and seasonal arena jobs that perpetuate an ongoing African American underclass.”

Critics of the project have been plentiful and loud, doubting that plans to put an arena at 10th and Market Streets on the doorstep of Chinatown, would benefit the city, given that the Sixers expect it to host 150 games and events a year. The Wells Fargo Center, where the Sixers are a tenant, hosts about 220 events a year.

The Sixers have rejected entreaties from Comcast Spectacor, which owns the Wells Fargo Center, to stay in South Philadelphia. The team intends to open its arena when its lease expires in 2031.

Chinatown activists say the venue would gentrify and eventually destroy a 150-year-old immigrant neighborhood, and five groups representing residents and voters in Center City and South Philadelphia have announced their opposition, calling upon their City Council member, Mark Squilla, to block the project.

In March, after months of inquiry and debate, the civic association in Washington Square West — with Chinatown, the other big, nearby residential neighborhood — decided not to take a position on the Sixers’ plan, while noting that its winter opinion survey showed 77% of respondents opposed.

The Sixers need City Council to approve a package of legislation before construction could begin, and it’s unclear when that might come. Last month members of an advisory, city-appointed design panel criticized the Sixers plan as “undercooked” and “underthought,” and questioned whether construction of the arena would repeat harmful mistakes of the past.

Everyone involved is waiting on city-sponsored impact studies, which are months beyond their end-of-December deadline.

The arena would claim the western third of the Fashion District, covering the area from 10th to 11th and Market to Filbert Streets. The Sixers say the venue will invigorate a struggling Market Street East, but neighbors say they’re worried about issues including traffic, crowds, and trash.

“We talk about how this is the largest poor city,” the NAACP’s Hicks said. “We have to do something to change that narrative. And I think this is one of those steps that we’re going in the right direction to do that.”