See the impact of the Sixers stadium in Philadelphia and how it compares to other cities

The city this week released four long-awaited impact studies that aim to help decision-makers determine whether a new Sixers arena downtown would generate a wealth of economic benefits, enrich city coffers and bring more entertainment options to the region — or lead to the demise of Chinatown and worsen traffic jams on downtown streets. The studies include multiple graphs to support their conclusions, some of which differ notably from previous studies commissioned by Sixers owners Comcast Spectacor, whose Wells Fargo Center would suffer if the Sixers move downtown in 2031.

Below are some charts with key findings from the new reports and how they compare to some previous studies.

Large disparities in projections of new tax revenues

According to the city’s economic impact study, conducted by CSL International, a new Sixers arena in downtown would generate nearly $400 million in new tax revenue over 30 years for the city, state and School District of Philadelphia. The revenue figures are based on estimates of $1.9 billion in direct spending over 30 years, plus the equivalent of 710 full-time jobs that would generate $593 million in revenue.

Those projections are well below the $1.5 billion in tax gain the Sixers touted as “an opportunity too big to pass up” in their economic study, which the team has declined to share publicly. However, the numbers in the city-sponsored CSL study and those provided by the Sixers are not directly comparable. The CSL analysis presented its totals in net present value, which shows the 30-year tax benefit in today’s dollars. The Sixers’ analysis is in nominal, or unadjusted, dollars. The Sixers said Tuesday that the total taxes in the CSL report would equal $1.1 billion in nominal dollars.

Support for two arenas

According to CSL’s economic impact study, building a Sixers arena in Center City would bring the Philadelphia region into the fold of eight other metropolitan areas that have at least two NBA-quality arenas, ranking fifth in population size. The Philadelphia metropolitan area also ranks third in median household income among markets with multiple arenas. The study concludes that the region has the size and wealth to support two arenas.

The report cites new arenas that have opened in the New York area to counter the argument that adding a Sixers arena downtown would oversaturate the Philadelphia market. The New York area was already home to Madison Square Garden in Manhattan and the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, splitting concerts when the Barclays Center in Brooklyn opened in 2012. By 2019, the number of concerts in the area had grown to 174, up from 61 in 2011. And the growth didn’t come at the expense of existing arenas: Both Madison Square Garden and the Prudential Center hosted more concerts in 2019 than they did in 2011. The addition of the UBS Arena on Long Island in 2022 brought even more concerts to the New York metropolitan area without impacting business at existing arenas.

The study commissioned by Comcast Spectacor takes a different view. The New York market (as well as Los Angeles) is an outlier, with no other metropolitan area in the region coming close to matching its size and influence. Additionally, no other city in the country had two major professional sports stadiums within the same city limits until the Intuit Dome opened in Los Angeles this year. Other metropolitan areas that are home to multiple stadiums have venues in different cities, such as the Target Center, which is home to the Minnesota Timberwolves in Minneapolis, and the XCel Energy Center, which is home to the NHL’s Minnesota Wild in St. Paul.

Concerts and family shows

According to CSL’s analysis, a new Sixers arena would add 50 new concerts and family-friendly shows to the Philadelphia market. The Wells Fargo Center would host a total of 74.

A study commissioned by Comcast Spectacor, which owns the Wells Fargo Center, paints a much less rosy scenario. That study, an analysis by Hunden Partners, shows 21 fewer combined concerts between the Wells Fargo Center and a Sixers arena, and 18 fewer family shows, compared with the recently released CSL study. The net loss for the Wells Fargo Center would be a 37% reduction in those two types of events, compared with a scenario in which the Wells Fargo Center was the city’s only major arena.

Mixed benefits for Chinatown small businesses

A community impact analysis conducted by BJH Advisors and Sojourner Consulting found that half of Chinatown businesses are likely to experience net negative effects from the Sixers stadium project downtown. Only four of the 13 sectors identified in the report would likely experience significant benefits. Seven other types of businesses — typically those in community services and the professional sector that rely heavily on vehicular traffic — would be negatively affected. Additionally, 57 percent of the businesses likely to suffer economic harm are traditional Chinatown businesses with strong community relationships, according to the report.

Traffic near a new stadium could be manageable

An independent traffic study indicated that if 40% of visitors to a new Sixers arena used public transportation (a goal set by the Sixers), then traffic around the arena would be manageable. Based on comparisons with other arenas in large cities, that proportion of public transit use is achievable, but not a foregone conclusion, according to the study. Currently, only 15% of attendees traveling to Wells Fargo Center events use SEPTA.

The scenario of manageable traffic near the Sixers’ new arena also carried with it a caveat. Even a marginal increase in the share of car trips “would result in congestion at critical intersections,” the report said. Hunden’s study commissioned by Comcast Spectacor projects that transit use for the Sixers’ new arena would be, at best, only slightly higher than the 15% who currently use transit to get to the Wells Fargo Center, and says fans would still prefer to drive and park.