By Peter Gleason
Radio dopes like Angelo Cataldi and his acolytes like Michael Barkann got all in a tizzy a couple of years ago when Sixers’ owner Josh Harris signed a deal to build a training facility and office complex in Camden:
It’s just the first step in moving the Sixers to Newark, where the Harris-Jersey Devils play, the dopes reported, with no evidence, mind you.
But last week, the Sixers announced they would no longer refer to the Wells Fargo Center in their press releases even though that’s where the team plays its games.
The reason?
Wells Fargo Bank’s deal is with Comcast-Spectacor, which also owns the Flyers and sold the Sixers to Harris four years ago.
Unless you also pay us a fee, the Sixers told the bank, you’re on our shit list.
And now comes the possibility that Harris will play hardball and build his own basketball arena in Camden, leaving the clueless Ed Snider with 41 empty dates on the calendar for his white elephant arena.
Snider, supposedly a great businessman, has been screwing the Sixers for years, first at the Spectrum and now at the Wells, charging exorbitant rent with no ancillary benefit for parking and concessions.
At the time, though, Delaware County Daily Times columnist Jack McCaffery wrote of a plan that would maximize Harris’ value even more:
Harris knows he cannot threaten a Sixers move to Newark. The Nets and Knicks have rights to that market, the NBA would seltzer-bottle him if he tried to move a team into it, and Philadelphia is too deep a basketball city to leave it free of a basketball team. There will be no threat of the Sixers moving north. None. East, though, is always in play.
If New Jersey executes the play correctly, it could have two big-league arenas, one on either pole of the state, one for hockey, one for hoops, both for circuses and concerts, all with the ability to lure promoters with a two-for-one special. It could take years. But, again, the play is just setting up.
