Philadelphia

New details on Sixers Center City arena plan coming Wednesday, Mayor Parker says

After a surprise announcement that an agreement had been reached for 76 Place, Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker says on Wednesday she will share more details to ensure 'our Sixers are staying home'

NBC Universal, Inc.

Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker, about a week after making a surprise announcement that there had been an agreement reached in order to bring an arena for the Philadelphia 76ers to Center City, said Tuesday that she will provide new details on the plan on Wednesday.

In fact, she told NBC10's Lauren Mayk at a ribbon cutting for the reconstructed Montgomery Avenue Bridge in North Philadelphia, that an announcement will be made at the Pennsylvania Convention Center on Wednesday And she was making sure to "cross every T and dot every I," to ensure that the Philadelphia Sixers stay in the City of Brotherly Love.

It will be a "very detailed press briefing," Parker said.

"You’re going to hear every detail from the top to the bottom. We're going to cross every T and dot every I when you see what the agreement entails that ensures that our Sixers are staying home," Parker said about Wednesday's announcement.

Back on Sept. 18, Parker announced, on social media, that an agreement had been reached that would bring 76 Place at Market East -- a $1.3 billion arena that would be home to the Philadelphia 76ers -- to Center City.

She noted that the project will "serve, I believe, as a revival of Market Street from City Hall to the river, an economic revival."

Local

Breaking news and the stories that matter to your neighborhood.

Woman killed in crash in Philadelphia

Person hurt in abandoned school fire in Camden, NJ

When discussing the plan on Tuesday, Parker said she wasn't yet ready to discuss new information on the agreement, other than to say that she is "extremely excited about the potential that this agreement has to offer for the City of Philadelphia."

Reacting to the mayor's announcement, Debbie Wei of the Save Chinatown Coalition said that local residents who live near the planned site for the new Sixers arena are still hopeful that their voices will be heard on their concerns about the proposal.

"I think the rushed timeline is reckless," she said.

Wei noted that, even if Parker believes the agreement is a done deal, City Council will still need to approve of it.

"The mayor's decision is one thing, council's decision is one thing and then, there's this whole other set of processes that need to happen, so we're prepared," she said. "We are ready to fight."

Parker told NBC10 that she sent over a legislative package on the agreement to City Council and, said she will reveal more on the deal on Wednesday.

As of about 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, exact details of the event planned for Wednesday had not been provided.

This is a breaking news story. It will be updated as new information becomes available.

Contact Us