Spectrum (arena)

Wachovia Spectrum

The Spectrum
File:WachSpectlogo.jpg
Former names	The Spectrum (1967-1994) CoreStates Spectrum (1994-1998) First Union Spectrum (1998-2003)
Location	3601 S Broad St Philadelphia, PA 19148
Owner	Comcast-Spectator, L.P.
Operator	Global Spectrum
Capacity	18,169 (basketball) 17,380 (hockey & AFL)
Construction
Broke ground	June, 1966
Opened	October 19, 1967
Construction cost	$7 million
Tenants
Philadelphia Phantoms (AHL) (1996-present) Philadelphia KiXX (MISL) (1996-present) Philadelphia Soul (AFL) (2004-present; Saturday home games) Philadelphia Flyers (NHL) (1967-1996) Philadelphia 76ers (NBA) (1967-1996) Philadelphia Wings (NLL) (1987-1996) Philadelphia Bulldogs (RHI) (1994-1996)

For other uses, see The Spectrum (disambiguation).

The Wachovia Spectrum (formerly known as the Spectrum (1967-1994), CoreStates Spectrum (1994-1998) and First Union Spectrum (1998-2003) is an indoor arena located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Completed in 1967, it seats 18,136 for basketball and 17,380 for ice hockey, arena American football, indoor soccer, and indoor lacrosse.

History

Opened as "The Spectrum" in the Fall of 1967, Philadelphia's first modern indoor sports arena was originally built to be the home of the expansion Philadelphia Flyers of the NHL, and also to accommodate the existing Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA. The building was the second major sports facility built at the South end of Broad Street in an area previously known as "East League Island Park" and now referred to simply as the "South Philadelphia Sports Complex."

Early years

The Spectrum was conceived and built to accommodate expansion of the NHL into Philadelphia which was awarded an expansion team for the 1967-68 season. Ground was broken on the arena in June, 1966, and finished in 16 months at a cost of $7 million. The 76ers moved there from Convention Hall. On March 1, 1968, high winds blew a portion of the covering of the Spectrum's roof off during a performance of the Ice Capades forcing the building to close for a month while the damage was repaired. (Similarly in 1993, the Flyers played a day game against the Los Angeles Kings during a blizzard. A piece of flying debris smashed out one of the concourse windows causing cancellation of the game just after the first period was finished. ) While the 76ers were able to move their home games to Convention Hall or to the Palestra, neither of those arenas had ice rinks at the time and there were no other NHL-quality sites in the Philadelphia area. Thus the Flyers hurriedly moved their next home game (against the Oakland Seals) to Madison Square Garden in New York followed by a meeting with the Boston Bruins played at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto before establishing a base at Le Colisée in Quebec City, home of their top minor league team, the AHL Quebec Aces, for the remainder of their regular season home schedule. (The roof was repaired in time to permit the Flyers to return to the Spectrum to open their first ever Stanley Cup play-offs against the St. Louis Blues on April 4, 1968.) Because of its location the Flyers of the 1970s soon became popularly known as the "Broad Street Bullies."

Flyers and Sixers' championships and All-Star Games hosted

The Spectrum's ice rink

The Flyers won their first Stanley Cup at the Spectrum on May 19, 1974, defeating the Boston Bruins, 1-0, in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals in front of a then-capacity crowd of 17,007. Perhaps the most important and emotional hockey game -- or sporting event of any kind -- ever held there, however, came at the height of the Cold War on January 11, 1976, when the Flyers became the first NHL team to defeat (by 4-1) the then vaunted hockey team of the Soviet Central Red Army (ЦСКА)[1]. Ten NHL or NBA playoff championship series were hosted at the Spectrum with the Flyers competing in the Stanley Cup Finals in 1974, 1975, 1976, 1980, 1985, and 1987, and the 76ers playing in the NBA Finals in 1977, 1980, 1982, and 1983. The 1976 and 1992 NHL, and 1970 and 1976 NBA All-Star Games were also held here. The AHL Phantoms also won their first Calder Cup title on Spectrum ice before a sell-out crowd of 17,380 on June 10, 1998, by defeating the Saint John Flames, 6-1.

College basketball tournaments

The Spectrum is frequently used for many basketball tournaments, including Big Five games, eight Atlantic Ten Conference tournaments (1977, 1983, 1997-2002), the 1992 NCAA East Regional (site of the famous last-second shot by Christian Laettner of Duke to beat Kentucky), and the 1976 and 1981 Final Fours (both won by Bobby Knight's Indiana Hoosiers). Smaller conferences still prefer holding tournament games at this venue over the larger Center nearby.

Professional wrestling

Professional wrestling exhibitions promoted by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) were performed at the Spectrum on a regular basis during the 1980's and 1990's. As were the Flyers and 76ers games, many of these performances were telecast live by PRISM, a regional sports and movies cable channel with its production and broadcast facilities physically located in the Spectrum from its founding in September 1976, until it ceased operations on October 1, 1997. (On that date PRISM was replaced by Comcast SportsNet located in the Wachovia Center.) Among the major WWF events which the building hosted were SummerSlam in 1990 , King of the Ring in 1995, and various other live shows featuring performers such as Hulk Hogan and others. After the WWF moved their shows into the adjacent Wachovia Center (opened in 1996) and Convention Hall at the Philadelphia Civic Center was closed (demolished in 2006), World Championship Wrestling (WCW) promoted their Philadelphia based shows at the Spectrum until the company was bought by the WWE in 2001.

Rock concerts

Popular music concerts have been staged at the Spectrum since the 1960s. The Grateful Dead played the Spectrum 53 times, by far the most of any musical act. Led Zeppelin played here in 1972 and 1975 (Some footage of the second show has been seen in recent bootleg videos). Pink Floyd performed two nights at this venue on their 1977 Animals tour. On the second night, Floyd member Roger Waters fell ill and did most of the show after a painkiller injection. However, the painkiller wore off and was taken to the hospital and missed the final encore of "Us and Them" where second guitarist Snowy White had to fill in on bass guitar. Unbeknownst to the crowd, this was the first time that the rest of Pink Floyd (guitarist/vocalist David Gilmour, drummer Nick Mason and keyboard player Rick Wright) performed a song live without Waters (they would go on without him as of 1986). Roger's experience whilst performing ill at this venue would be documented on "Comfortably Numb". Queen played at this venue in 1977 (2 shows), 1978, 1980 and 1982, and they played as Queen + Paul Rodgers here again on their 2006 tour of North America. The Who performed at the Spectrum throughout the 1970's. The 1973 show was documented in a famous audio bootleg of their Quadrophenia performance. A CD has been released of John Entwistle's performance on March 15, 1975 when he opened for Humble Pie. Guns N' Roses also played at The Spectrum in 1991 during their Use Your Illusion Tour. The most recent rock act to play The Spectrum was the Foo Fighters, on February 21, 2008.

Spectrum Theater

The Spectrum Theater was a venue for acts not big enough to fill the entire Spectrum arena. The stage was placed in the middle of the Spectrum floor, and the other half of the arena behind the stage was closed off with curtains, creating a theater-like environment. Some of the acts that played in this configuration included Frank Zappa in 1973, 1976 and 1977; David Bowie's Diamond Dogs Tour in 1974; Bob Marley's Natty Dread Tour in 1975; and Peter Gabriel's tours in 1982 and 1986.

The Flyers and 76ers' move

Although both the Flyers and 76ers moved across the parking lot to the new and larger Wachovia Center in 1996, the arena remains in place and is still used by the Philadelphia Phantoms of the AHL, the Philadelphia Kixx (2007 MISL champions), the Philadelphia Soul of the Arena Football League for Saturday home games, and a variety of other sporting events and concerts.

The Flyers and 76ers had been in need of a new facility for some time. One reason was the need for more revenue streams to meet skyrocketing operating costs. The Spectrum has relatively few luxury suites or other amenities common in newer arenas.

In addition, the arena's sight lines left much to be desired. Some seats in both the hockey and basketball configurations (especially in the upper level) had badly obstructed views. There was only one concourse for all three levels, making for somewhat cramped conditions whenever attendance was anywhere near capacity.

End of an Era?

On January 14, 2008, news surfaced that preliminary plans were being considered for a project called "Philly Live!" These plans include shops and restaurants being added to the sports complex, and the Spectrum may be demolished to make way for a hotel.

The four decade old Wachovia Spectrum (center), the oldest (1967) of the four venues which now make up Philadelphia's massive "Sports Complex," Citizens Bank Park (right), its newest (2004) facility, tree lined S. Broad St. (left), and the city's expansive skyline along the horizon to the North, as viewed from the roof of the Wachovia Center (1996). (Composite panoramic digital image by Bruce C. Cooper, DigitalImageServices.com)

The Spectrum's "Sports Complex" neighbors

The Spectrum is now the oldest of the four currently existing arenas and stadiums (of the six built overall between 1926 and 2004) which make up Philadelphia's massive "Sports Complex" located at the South end of Broad Street. The Complex now occupies roughly a quarter of the 1926 site of Philadelphia's Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition, a massive 184-day World's Fair which ran from May 31 to November 30, 1926, on grounds bounded by 10th Street, Packer Ave., 23rd Street, and the U.S. Navy Yard (Terminal Avenue). The Spectrum now occupies the portion of the original Exposition grounds located on the south side of Pattison Avenue between Broad and 11th Streets that in 1926 was the site of the fair's expansive main trolley station operated by the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company.

When opened in 1967, the Spectrum sat just north of the then existing 100,000+ seat John F. Kennedy Stadium (originally known from 1926 to 1964 as "Municipal Stadium") which had been built more than four decades earlier (opened April 15, 1926). On September 23, 1926, an announced crowd of 120,557 packed the then new Stadium -- in the rain -- to witness Gene Tunney capture the world's heavyweight boxing title from Jack Dempsey, and for decades the monolith also served as the "neutral" venue for a total of 42 annual Army-Navy Games. JFK Stadium was demolished in 1992 to make way for a new indoor arena, the Wachovia Center, which opened in August, 1996. Originally known as the "CoreStates Center" (1996-1998) and then the "First Union Center" (1998-2003), the 20,000+ seat facility replaced the Spectrum as home to the NHL Philadelphia Flyers, NBA Philadelphia 76ers and NLL Philadelphia Wings.

For thirty-three years, Veterans Stadium (opened 1971, closed 2003, demolished 2004), the third facility built at the complex to accommodate the MLB Philadelphia Phillies and NFL Philadelphia Eagles, was located immediately north of the Spectrum directly across Pattison Avenue. The "Vet" was replaced by two new facilities: a purpose built football/soccer stadium, Lincoln Financial Field (opened 2003), which is located directly across 11th Street from the Wachovia Center, and a new dedicated baseball stadium, Citizens Bank Park (opened 2004), located at the northeast corner of Pattison Ave. and Citizens Bank Way (11th St.) immediately east of the former Veterans Stadium site which is now occupied by a parking lot for the sports complex.

The "Rocky" statue

A statue of Sylvester Stallone, depicting him in his famous role of Philadelphia boxer Rocky Balboa, stood for many years in front of the main (Pattison Avenue) entrance of the Spectrum which had been represented in the movie to be the site of Rocky's first and second fights with Apollo Creed. (The arena in which the fight sequences were actually filmed was the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.) The statue was removed several times over the years to be used in the filming of sequels to the original film. In September, 2006, however, it was given a permanent new home in an area near the base of the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art not far from where it had appeared in a spot on the plaza at the top of the Museum's steps in the film Rocky III.

Tenants

Full time:

• Philadelphia Phantoms of the AHL (also plays a few regular season and most Calder Cup playoff games at the adjacent Wachovia Center when the Spectrum is unavailable)
• Philadelphia Kixx of the MISL

Part time:

• Philadelphia Soul of the AFL (a few regular season games when the Wachovia Center is unavailable)

Former full time:

• Philadelphia Flyers of the NHL
• Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA
• Philadelphia Wings of the NLL
• Philadelphia Bulldogs of the RHI

Former part time:

• Villanova University (some high-profile men's basketball home games which the on-campus arena, The Pavilion, is too small to accommodate)

Notable events

• NBA All-Star Game - 1970, 1976
• NHL Stanley Cup Finals - 1974, 1975, 1976, 1980, 1985, 1987
• NHL All-Star Game - 1976, 1992
• NCAA Tournament - Men's Final Four, 1976, 1981 (both won by Indiana University)
• NBA Finals - 1977, 1980, 1982, 1983
• MILL Championship - 1989, 1992, 1994, 1995
• WWF SummerSlam '90 - 1990
• NCAA Tournament, East Regional (won by Duke University) - 1992
• WWF King of the Ring - 1995
• AHL Calder Cup Finals - 1998
• NPSL Championship - 2001
• MISL Championship - 2002

References

39°54′15″N 75°10′16″W