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A Philadelphia 76ers spokesperson said the team is “seriously” considering options, including moving to New Jersey, for when their current lease at Wells Fargo Arena expires in 2031.
New Jersey state officials contacted 76ers leadership on Monday and offered team owners the opportunity to gain up to $800 million in tax credits while the officials outlined a proposal to build a mixed-use development including a new arena on state-owned land in Camden, New Jersey, per ROI-NJ and the Associated Press.
“The reality is we are running out of time to reach an agreement that will allow the 76ers to open our new home in time for the 2031-32 NBA season,” spokesperson Molly Mita McEndy wrote in an email, per the Associated Press. “As a result, we must take all potential options seriously, including this one.”
The 76ers have proposed building a $1.55 billion arena near Philadelphia’s Chinatown neighborhood, but the project has yet to be approved by the city.
Independent consultants hired by the City of Philadelphia published impact reports on Aug. 26 expressing some hesitancy about the project, including a statement that the proposed arena “should be considered a significant potential risk to Chinatown’s core identity.”
The study concluded that the City Council would need to pass at least 11 bills in order for the construction of the stadium to get underway, Kristin Hunt reported for PhillyVoice.
The proposed Philadelphia arena, which is to be called “76 Place,” is being funded by investment group 76DevCo, led in part by 76ers managing partners Josh Harris and David Blitzer.
The 76DevCo website states that city and state approval of construction permits is needed by 2024 in order to complete the arena project by 2031.
That timeline has apparently led the 76ers to consider other options, including the offer from New Jersey.
The office of New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy offered tax credits of $400 million each for an arena and “a full-scale mixed-use component,” Tom Bergeron reported for ROI-NJ.
The governor also expressed the hope of working with the state legislature to offer “$500 million of special-purpose bonds supported by fees and surcharges on tickets, concessions and parking” toward arena development, per Bergeron.
The Sixers moved the team’s offices and practice facility to the Camden waterfront in 2016. The New Jersey city is approximately five miles from Philadelphia across the Delaware River.
Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, which owns the 76ers, has additional ties to the state through its ownership of the New Jersey Devils and the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
The 76ers plan to leave their current venue in order to offer fans and players an improved arena, as well as to avoid scheduling conflicts with the Philadelphia Flyers, Aaron Moselle and Kristen Mosbrucker-Garza previously reported for WHYY.
The team’s lease is set to expire in 2031, by which point the stadium will no longer be called the Wells Fargo Center. The bank stated in July it would allow its naming rights deal with the Sixers and Flyers to expire in August 2025.
