Posted: Thursday, February 5, 2009, 10:09 AM | 14 comments |
 

Sadly, Phantoms leaving area
options
 

   Comcast-Spectacor announced yesterday that the AHL Phantoms would be sold to a Pittsburgh group and that they will be leaving the area.

   No location has been announced, but there are indications that the club will eventually play in Lehigh Valley, where a new arena will have to be built.

    The team is leaving Philadelphia, of course, because the Specrum will be torn down in the fall to make room for Philly Live, a restaurant, shopping complex.

   I'm all for Philly Live. It will be great for that portion of the city.

   But....

   Wouldn't it have been better if the iconic Spectrum was spared and renovated....and a mini-Philly Live complex had been added to it?

   Sometimes, smaller is better.

   With today's struggling economy, it's fair to ask how many retail stores or restaurants will be willing to invest in the complex. And tearing down the Spectrum makes it much difficult for the Flyers to monitor their top minor-league affiliate  _ and send players back and forth to the two teams.

   When it was decided that the Spectrum would be knocked down, Comcast-Spectacor had looked into building an arena in the Cherry Hill  area. But the project was deemed too expensive, so, sadly, an ideal Flyers-Phantoms setup _ the teams use the same practice facility in Voorhees, and play home games next-door to each other _ is about to go by the wayside.
Posted by Sam Carchidi @ 10:09 AM  Permalink | 14 comments
14
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:51 AM, 02/05/2009
    Shame they couldn’t make a N.E. Phila or Bucks county location work. There is a lot of space out there to build & I could’ve seen a lot of fan support up there. It is sad that we only have one option now & the average ticket price for the Flyers is around $65. (Not exactly "family entertainment") I’ll be sad to see them go.
    — Kennedy
  • Comment removed.
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 1:33 PM, 02/05/2009
    Good thing then that the KiXX are still around and offer affordable "family entertainment" for sports fans in this town. Ticket prices have gotten out of hand across the board. Shame that the Phantoms are on their way out though... When was the last Calder Cup that they won? Lets hope though that Philly Live will be a classy (albeit potentially pricey) addition to the stadium complex & South Philly.
    — rotski82
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 5:17 PM, 02/05/2009
    The Phantoms were never planned to be here for the long haul...hopefully now they can do away with that name...which, by the way was decided on by a former Mrs. Snider...then they pretended to have a "name the team" competition....shame...
    — bvl390
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 5:51 PM, 02/05/2009
    The Lehigh Valley has done a good job supporting the IronPigs and the Eagles' training camp, so I would guess the Phantoms have at least a decent shot at success there. For some fans in DelCo/Montco/Bucks, it's not that much farther to drive up the NE Extension to Allentown. Still, the Phantoms were good family entertainment, and with the Soul out of business for a year, we have fewer options for local sports...then again, I don't have any money to spend anyway, so it's all the same to me...
    — J H
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 8:21 AM, 02/06/2009
    Comcast Sucks
    — loud01
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:20 AM, 02/06/2009
    Maybe Sam can explain why they didn't just move the Phantoms to the Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton, a mere 30 miles away and managed by Comcast Spectactor. This would enable the Flyers to continue joint practices in New Jersey and would maintain whatever goodwill there is in the Phantoms franchise. Seems to me all the explanations are bs--they didn't want a minor league team that doesn't make money, even though it builds a fan base for the Flyers.
    — Palestra Jon
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:25 AM, 02/06/2009
    Sam - Re: the comment about sparing the Spectrum and making it part of the "entertainment" complex. Check out my comment in yesterday's post to the Phantoms story. I wondered why Comcast-Spectacor couldn't do with the Spectrum what was done with the old Forum in Montreal. This whole Philly Live thing isn't going to do anything except cause traffic/parking nightmares when there's a sporting event going on. Whoever dreamed up this gave no thought to this at all.
    — phils32
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:21 AM, 02/08/2009
    Ya know with Chester County being one of the growing communities in the Philadelphia area; why the Phantoms needed to be sold and moved. I guess we will need to travel to Reading to get the affordable family sports entertainment.
    — LabO
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 5:21 PM, 02/08/2009
    Good idea on the Trenton thing. Why not have them play 30 games at Wachovia Center and the remaining at Trenton? I am sure they can fit in some games at Wachovia for them...
    — 93phils
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 6:16 PM, 02/08/2009
    The Kixx? isn't that the indoor soccer team? if so, who would want to see that? IT'S INDOOR SOCCER!!! And the AFL doesn't come close to cutting it for me because it's football in a hockey arena. However, I agree that Comcast selling the Phantoms could have been easily avoided, and Flyers tickets have become very very expensive.
    — mikehuckabee2012
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 7:28 AM, 02/10/2009
    As a Philly transplant here in the Lehigh Valley, I hope the Phantoms come here. This is the fastest growing area in the state and can easily support the team, just as it did the Iron Pigs. And I would like to see more hockey without making the long weeknight haul to Philly.
    — nlion93
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:51 AM, 02/11/2009
    Nlion 93, couldn't agree with you more. As someone who's planning on moving to Allentown in the upcoming months, I think the Phantoms coming here would be an incredible idea and with the broad base of Flyer and Phantoms fans up here, it really COULD work! They CAN'T go to Trenton because the Devils have THEIR team already playing there. Allentown will do just fine! Let Philly people come up HERE instead of us always having to come down there! The Phantoms in Allentown in 2 years CAN work and it WILL work! To hell with all the haters! GO PHANTOMS!! :)
    — PhillyHockeyBuff
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:15 AM, 02/11/2009
    I love the Lehigh Valley idea too. Why didn't the Flyers plan on making this happen when they announced the closing of the Spectrum? The way is stands now, the Phantoms are not part of Flyers organization once the season ends. It seems Flyers never had a plan in place at all. If a team does start up in LV it won't be the Phantoms.
    — BobbyD


14 comments
About Sam Carchidi
Sam Carchidi is in his fourth year as the Flyers' beat reporter. He became an Inquirer staff writer in 1984 and covered mostly South Jersey high school sports and the Phillies before taking the Flyers beat.

Carchidi has written three books _ the nationally acclaimed Miracle in the Making: The Adam Taliaferro Story, which he co-authored with Scott Brown; Bill Campbell: The Voice of Philadelphia Sports; and Standing Tall: The Kevin Everett Story, which was featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show. He also contributed to a 1993 Inquirer book on the Phillies.

A lifelong South Jersey resident, Carchidi lives in Wenonah with his wife, JoAnn, and their two children, Sara and Sammy.

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