Last week’s preliminary City Council vote to approve the 76ers Center City stadium plan was the most contentious legislative battle since Mayor Cherelle L. Parker and Council Speaker Kenyatta Johnson took office.
The voting dispute revealed fresh power dynamics in Philadelphia politics and confirmed some aged truths.
» READ MORE: City Council members approved the proposal to build the 76ers Center City arena in a preliminary vote
The Council’s Committee of the Whole, which includes all members, approved the legislation to authorize the arena’s construction by a 12-4 vote in the absence of Councilmember Kendra Brooks, who opposes the arena’s construction. The final vote on the regulations will take place on Thursday, during the last Council session this year. Since a majority of members have already voted in favor of this arena in committee, it is almost certain that it will be approved.
Here are some key policy takeaways from the Council’s huge arena vote.
Philadelphia is still a union city…
During Friday’s International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 98 holiday party, a poster with photos of all 17 council members hung at the entrance.
Five had red X’s drawn on their faces: members who did not vote for the arena.
» READ MORE: How Philadelphia City Council members voted at the Sixers arena
“It’s really simple,” said Mark Lynch Jr., business manager of Local 98. “If you’re not with us, you’re against us.”
The Philadelphia Building Trades and Construction Council, a coalition of more than 30 unions that includes electricians, spends millions on city and state policy and generally wins. That’s why most politicians in Philadelphia try to stay in favor.
The deals played a key role in electing Parker and her predecessor, Jim Kenney, to the mayor’s office and also helped Johnson win her first council seat last year.
It looked like unions might take a back seat in Philadelphia politics for a while after their former leader John J. Dougherty, Local 98’s longtime business manager, was convicted in 2021 on federal corruption charges. But “Johnny Doc” was replaced by Ryan Boyer of the Workers’ District Council, a Parker ally, and industry executives haven’t looked back.
…but not so much a company town.
Comcast owns two of Philadelphia’s tallest skyscrapers, and its glass towers tower over City Hall – a reminder of the cable TV and Internet giant’s importance as the city’s only Fortune 100 company.
But Comcast didn’t cast a long enough shadow to change Parker and council members’ minds about the arena.
Comcast Spectacor, a subsidiary, owns the Flyers and Wells Fargo Center and is the current owner of the 76ers. The Sixers hope to vacate their South Philly arena and move into their own home when their lease expires before the 2031-32 NBA season, and Spectacor will likely lose huge on the move.
In addition to the lack of rent for the 76ers, the Wells Fargo Center will face competition to book concerts in the fresh arena and will even likely see a significant decline in the value of the building’s naming rights, given that it will exclusively house one major sports team.
Spectacor lobbied heavily against the 76ers’ efforts to leave South Philly, but was unsuccessful. The contract negotiated between Parker and the 76ers even included a “competitive facilities” provision that would likely prevent Spectacor from receiving city subsidies if it ever needed to build a fresh home for the Flyers.
A Spectacor spokesman declined to comment on the matter.
Division on the left
In the 2023 elections, the number of council members with robust ties to Philadelphia’s progressive movement increased from three to four, opening the door for the leftist caucus to escalate its influence throughout the body.
The four ultimately opposed the arena, mainly because they feared the arena might displace neighboring Chinatown. However, during negotiations, these members operated as two separate pairs rather than a bloc of four.
Brooks and council member Nicolas O’Rourke, who represent the progressive Working Families Party, have publicly opposed the project for months and have worked closely with the Save Chinatown coalition organized to fight it.
Their public opposition largely kept them out of agreement negotiations, but in the final days of talks they insisted that the council require the 76ers to escalate the amount they paid into the project’s community benefits agreement from $50 million to $300 million.
“It was best said in the Council: ‘This whole thing is a sell-out deal.’ But this fight is not over,” Brooks and O’Rourke said in a joint statement, referring to the words activists chanted in Council chambers as the commission approved the arena. “We will explore every option at our disposal to continue to convince all of Philadelphia that this is a bad deal for the city.”
Council member Jeffery “Jay” Young Jr., a Democrat not closely associated with the progressive movement, has worked with Brooks and O’Rourke at times but also voted against the project.
» READ MORE: How Philadelphia City Council members voted at the Sixers arena
Meanwhile, Council members Jamie Gauthier and Rue Landau, Progressive Democrats, refused to take an international stance until the last minute and ultimately became the only true swing voters on the Council.
Even though most council members were almost certain to vote for the project, Johnson and Parker wanted to raise the rating as high as possible. Landau and Gauthier, who were most expected to oppose this arena, have signaled they may vote yes if they can improve the deal by securing significant funding for Chinatown, such as the $100 million version of the CBA that Johnson floated at one point , but the voice never mentioned her. Another option would be for the Council to adopt an anti-eviction plan distributed by the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation.
Ultimately, Johnson capitulated to the 76ers’ last best offer of $60 million to CBA, and Gauthier and Landau had no reason to support the deal.
» READ MORE: Inside the 76ers arena deal approved by Philadelphia City Council members
It’s simple to see why the two progressive couples went their separate ways. Brooks and O’Rourke hold two council seats that are reserved for minority or independent party candidates. Their base of support is overwhelmingly left-wing, and their re-election chances depend on defeating Republicans, not Democrats. Opposing the arena was an simple choice.
Meanwhile, Landau and Gauthier must navigate more complicated political terrain. Both enjoy the support of progressive groups, but they also have to compete with the more centrist Democrats and attract voters from beyond the extreme left.
They found themselves in a complex situation. By voting against this arena, they would incur the wrath of deep-pocketed construction unions and the Democratic establishment. By voting for her, they would anger left-wing activists, some of the most energetic political organizers in the city.
Ultimately, their choice was also made simple thanks to the 76ers’ insistence on paying no more than $60 million to the CBA, and Chinatown received a relatively petite amount from the deal.
“It is deplorable to learn that 76-year-olds and their billionaire owners believe our communities are only worth $60 million over 30 years,” Gauthier and Landau said in a joint statement. “The final agreement will not be enough to offset the harm the arena will cause to Chinatown, Washington Square West, the Gayborhood and communities across our city.”
» READ MORE: Chinatown supporters see ‘betrayal’ in 76ers’ arena victory, others see economic opportunity for Philadelphia
Parker’s first major victory on the Council
Parker spent the first nine months of her term all but ignoring the controversial debate in the arena, then launched a three-month onslaught to bring it to a conclusion before the end of the year.
Her gradual, then sudden approach to the project was unconventional. But it worked.
For months, the Parker administration withheld the publication of impact studies for a project commissioned under Kenney’s leadership. And despite the widespread assumption that she would ultimately support the project because of her relationship with Boyer, the mayor did not officially approve the arena’s construction until September.
Then came the full court press. Parker hosted a three-hour event revealing details of the deal she had negotiated with the 76ers, held a series of town halls across the city to sell the project, and had her deputies and commissioners testify in its favor during extensive Council hearings. The day before the vote, Parker personally lobbied lawmakers, going door-to-door between City Council members’ offices.
In hindsight, the arena’s fate was secured as soon as Parker won the May 2023 Democratic mayoral primary.
As if to overcome the truism that elections have consequences, former council member Helen Gym, who lost to Parker in last year’s mayoral election, attended a committee meeting where lawmakers presented the stadium legislation. Gym, a longtime champion of Chinatown, could derail the project if she wins the mayoral race.
But it was Parker’s day.
“The City Council has taken monumental action on a $1.3 billion economic development project for Philadelphia that, as I have consistently said, goes far beyond basketball,” Parker said after the vote.
