76ers Will No Longer Be Playing at Wells Fargo Center
Beginning next season, the Philadelphia 76ers will no longer be playing at Wells Fargo Center. In January, Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, otherwise known as HBSE, and Comcast Spectator announced that they had entered into a binding agreement to form a 50/50 joint venture to build a new state-of-the-art arena at the South Philadelphia Sports Complex. This new arena will be the home to the Philadelphia 76ers and Philadelphia Flyers. With this new deal, the naming rights to the arena will be given to another corporate suitor. Some potential naming rights include Wawa, Cencora, Aramark, Toll Brothers, Susquehanna International Group, and Campbell’s. This new deal emerged after Wells Fargo announced in July of 2024 that it would not be renewing its naming rights after the current deal expires in August 2025.
This new joint arena is set to be opened in 2031. “Today’s announcement is great news for the city of Philadelphia,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said after the original deal was announced in January. At first, the Philadelphia 76ers franchise had plans to build a new arena in Center City, but that shifted earlier this year and this new deal with Comcast eventually came about. The franchise thought for years about this new arena and where the best spot for it would be. There was even some talk about the new facility being located in New Jersey. Although this idea was dismissed by the public fairly quickly, it was later reported that that possibility of a New Jersey location was a lot more realistic at the time than many people realized.
The 76ers began their tenure at Wells Fargo Center in 1996, and it has lasted up until this year with Wells Fargo’s naming rights deal ending this summer. This will be the third arena that the franchise will play in. After a disaster of a season for the team and its fans, this new project brings some excitement to the city and the future of the franchise. The team itself currently has its eyes set on the NBA Draft Lottery, as the Sixers finished the regular season with the fifth-worst record in the NBA. The Sixers need its first-round pick to land in the top six in order to keep it, or else it goes to the Oklahoma City Thunder. The lottery will take place on May 12th.
