Philadelphia's CoreStates Center will be renamed the
First Union Center in a "gradual process that won't be
completed" until September 1, according to Edward Moran of
the PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS. First Union Complex CEO Peter
Luukko said the company, which acquired CoreStates Financial
Corp. in April, did not sign a new deal with Comcast-
Spectacor but "simply assumed the terms" of the 29-year,
$40M naming rights deal that CoreStates agreed to. But one
source told Moran that the change "is believed to be
costing" First Union "about" $1.5M. Moran, on the arena's
name: "Sure, we can all try and be adult about this, but
that's not going to stop the chuckling when Philadelphia's
sports fans give the building a nickname. That would be the
FU Center. Go ahead, try and avoid it." Luukko: "You can
put an acronym on anything you want. But we're referring to
it as the First Union Center because that's what it is."
The CoreStates Center will also be renamed to the First
Union Spectrum (PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS, 7/16).
DISABLED SETTLEMENT: A settlement was reached yesterday
in a federal suit filed in '96 by two groups representing
disabled people against the groups that designed, built, own
and operate the First Union Center. Settlement terms
"provide for lifts and platforms to be installed in several
sections in both the lower and mezzanine levels, and for so-
called no-sale seats in some mezzanine-level sections" (Bill
Ordine, PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 7/16).
