Ten questions for everyone at this week’s Sixers arena press conference

On Monday, speakers at a City Hall press conference included Parker, 75 Devcorp leader David Adelman, NBA commissioner Adam Silver, Sixers managing partner Josh Harris, City Council president Kenyatta Johnson, and Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts. They entertained only a handful of questions from reporters, some of whom tried to raise the implications of this shameless corporate slalom. Because the whole debacle has deep meaning for our city’s political and cultural character, we at BSR have questions, too—for our politicians, our reigning billionaires, and for YOU. Let’s go.

1) The fate of Chinatown has been central to the arena controversy from the beginning, with a consortium of local activists organizing against the proposal and mounting multiple protests that rallied thousands of people (including BSR team members) among a large majority of Philadelphians opposed to the plans. Yet Chinatown was mentioned by name only once (by our count) during the press conference, with only a few oblique references to the opposition movement as a whole. Why were Parker, Adelman, Roberts, and their allies so unwilling to acknowledge Chinatown in the aftermath of this news?

2) What is the next threat to Philly’s Chinatown now that we know Mayor Parker and most of City Council will not listen to these constituents or their allies at any cost?

3) If you worked in coalition against the new arena, how are you doing today? How does this announcement color all of the effort, time, money, and other resources you put into this fight? What is your morale for the future?

4) If you lobbied in favor of the arena, how does this reversal change your own narrative? What do you actually want for the community, businesses, and organizations in the area impacted by this type of development?

5) Did Mayor Parker’s team think that a meandering speech from Wanda Sykes rehashing Philly’s WNBA hopes would distract us from Councilmember Mark Squilla’s absence at the podium after he introduced the legislation in question? Since it is his district? Hello? Anybody?

6) By his own admission, Harris was sick. Did Parker insist that he come into the office? (Somehow Silver was allowed to phone in.) Could Harris have put on a mask or was sniffling on the mic and shaking hands in a crowded room just one more potential harm he could not resist visiting on ordinary Philadelphians?

7) When Roberts pointedly mentioned that Comcast has, so far, chosen not to leave the City of Philadelphia, did we miss our cue to fall to our knees and thank him?

8) If City Council had not rushed to pass a massive bolus of arena legislation on the Sixers’ timeline, what could they have accomplished for us instead, ahead of a hellacious federal landscape in 2025 and America’s semiquincentennial in 2026?

9) Parker and 12 City Councilmembers chose a handful of billionaires over their own constituents. Really, how did it feel when they found out the whole thing was toast? At least Jim “Bamboozled” Harrity is being honest.

10) What else do we need to know as people who are interested or engaged in this, but may still be, to varying degrees, on the outside looking in?

Maybe we’ll get answers to some of these questions. Maybe not. But we ask them in part to remind ourselves and everybody else to keep asking. It’s our right to know. Philly’s future depends on whether City Council will answer.

At top: a handmade sign outside City Hall at the September 7, 2024 No Arena protest. (Photo by Alaina Johns.)