$300 million or bust? Council prepares to vote on arena proposal

It’s game time: City Council’s Committee of the Whole is expected to hold a vote on the arena on Wednesday. 

The Councilmembers will make their decisions after a week marked by escalating tensions over the Sixers’ community benefits agreement — a sticking point that led to Council President Kenyatta Johnson moving to push the vote back nearly a week (it was initially scheduled for last Thursday).

The $1.3 billion proposal saw one last tumultuous public comment session last week, where pro- and anti-arena crowds had some bitter exchanges. There was also one final day of public hearings, where lawmakers grilled representatives for the Sixers’ owners, Harris-Blitzer Sports and Entertainment, more than once criticizing HBSE’s urgency in securing a Council vote before the year’s end while certain questions about SEPTA and the CBA remained unanswered. 

CBA in the spotlight 

A broad swath of lawmakers agreed during last week’s proceedings that the Sixers’ proposed $50 million CBA commitment is unacceptably low — albeit by varying degrees. Those in Council who most vocally oppose the arena united behind a call for a $300 million CBA, a six-fold increase from HBSE’s current offer. Community groups that had previously focused on opposing the entire plan outright threw their weight behind that number this week. 

HBSE representatives, who weeks ago staunchly refused to consider changing the CBA at all, said at a hearing last Tuesday they were open to adjusting the dollar amount. But they dismissed the $300 million proposal outright, arguing it would make the project “economically non-viable.” 

Arena critics frequently emphasize that the CBA was negotiated between the Sixers and Mayor Parker’s administration without community input, while most CBAs involve direct communication between a corporation and local groups. They also argue that the agreement doesn’t adequately address the potential displacement of longtime residents and economic losses for local businesses projected by a city-commissioned impact study. 

Councilmember Jeffrey Young Jr., a former real estate attorney, was among the first to float the $300 million number in early November, comparing the Sixers’ offer to a $500 million CBA negotiated for a Los Angeles airport in the early 2000s. Last Tuesday, Councilmembers Kendra Brooks and Nicolas O’Rourke joined Young in releasing a framework for a $300 million CBA which would earmark $100 million for a neighborhood stabilization fund and $60 million for SEPTA. The No Arena Coalition stood behind the $300 million price tag at a press conference last Wednesday.

The Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corp. echoed the support and released their own proposal on Tuesday calling for at least $163 million to be allocated to Chinatown specifically: $63 million for a business grant program and $100 million for a Commercial Land Trust tht PCDC says would preserve housing affordability, plus a list of Chinatown-specific measures that the group didn’t attach a price to. Councilmembers Jamie Gauthier and Rue Landau came out in support of PCDC’s demands. 

Some other Councilmembers pushing for an increase kept their requests more conservative. Councilmember Mark Squilla, whose district encompasses the arena site and who authored its legislation, continued to tread the line of supporting the project while pushing for alterations. He called the $300 million goal “unrealistic” but described an increase of $10 million as the floor of what Council would even take a vote on. Councilmember Jim Harrity, during last Tuesday’s hearing, also proposed a narrower change. He argued that based on the city’s impact study, the CBA’s business disruption fund for Chinatown should be boosted from $1.6 million to $7.5 million in order to actually serve its function.

Who’s in? 

On the day he postponed the committee vote, Council President Johnson said the ongoing negotiations between lawmakers and the Sixers were “productive” and needed more time to develop. He also told reporters that the Council did not yet have enough votes to pass the arena’s legislative package. 

“We need nine votes here in order to move this process forward,” Johnson said on Thursday, according to Metro Philly. “We don’t see nine votes at the moment.”  

City Hall observers have often erred on the side of caution, assuming that most Councilmembers’ votes — under the pressure of the Parker administration, Building Trades, and real estate — are simply locked in for the arena, regardless of how much the lawmakers may publicly criticize the Sixers in the meantime.

But arena opponents see Johnson’s comments and the voting delay as reason to hope; the No Arena Coalition declared the rescheduled vote as a “major victory.” One arena opponent with knowledge of the matter told Billy Penn that a number of Councilmembers, including some who have not made their stance public yet, are “in alignment” with the ambitious $300 million CBA proposal. 

Councilmembers Young, Brooks and O’Rourke are virtually guaranteed to vote nay. Councilmembers Jamie Gauthier and Rue Landau have stated that they keep “open minds” about the process, but have been among its most outspoken skeptics and previously voted against advancing procedural legislation. In an X post on Monday, @SaveChinatownPA directed supporters to focus their calling and emailing efforts on six Councilmembers: Gauthier, Landau, Quetcy Lozada, Isaiah Thomas, Katherine Gilmore Richardson, and Nina Ahmad. Six more “nay” votes in addition to Brooks, O’Rourke and Young would meet the threshold to prevent legislation from moving forward. 

What else is happening? 

• Mayor Parker is continuing her pro-arena town hall tour, visiting Bustleton and Washington Square West after two stops last week in Councilmember Gauthier’s district in West Philly and Councilmember Lozada’s in Kensington. After a relatively peaceful first stop at Parker’s home turf of Mount Airy two weeks ago, last week’s events saw more outspoken arena dissidents showing up to make their views known. 

• While Councilmembers gear up to vote, arena opponents have their own plans for Wednesday. Members and supporters of the No Arena Coalition are planning to drive a “mass caravan” of cars through Center City at rush hour to create the gridlock traffic projected to ensue on game days if over 40% of fans drive to the arena site (arena opponents argue this is likely to happen, as about 85% of fans currently drive to the Sixers’ South Philly location and there are still no clear answers as to how SEPTA will pull off increased regional rail operations to accommodate game days in Center City).

• If the arena legislation passes the Committee vote tomorrow, it will move on to a final vote on Dec. 19 — an extra date added to the legislative calendar just for this saga. The Committee of the Whole includes the whole Council, so it’s unlikely there would be a shift in outcome between these two votes. It’s also possible that a final vote will get punted into the new year.