MLS Philadelphia Franchise Breaks Ground On Chester Stadium
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MLS Philadelphia Stadium To Be Anchor Of
$500M Development In Chester, Pennsylvania |
The fledgling MLS Philadelphia franchise yesterday officially broke ground on a $115M stadium in Chester, Pennsylvania, that backers "promise will help transform the struggling city of Chester," according to Jeff Gammage of the PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER. Team officials said that work on the stadium, which began "some months ago," is proceeding "on time and on budget, and that they expected that to continue." The stadium will be the "anchor of a $500[M] development that backers say will help revive downtrodden Chester," but the "big question has been whether the sour housing and lending markets would force cutbacks in that ancillary development." Team co-Owner and Buccini/Pollin Group President Robert Buccini, whose company is developing the stadium project, yesterday said that the stadium project will be built "as intended, except for changes in the percentage of housing units to be sold and rented." Government officials said that they will "honor their funding commitments to the stadium project," as the state has pledged $47M and the Delaware County (PA) Council has promised $30M. Gammage notes the groundbreaking comes amid a "worldwide economic crisis that no one can ignore, not even the wealthy owners of sports teams." But MLS Commissioner Don Garber before yesterday's ceremony said the league is "confident this project is not going to be impacted greatly" by the economy. Gammage notes "about 50 members" of the team's Sons of Ben fan club attended the groundbreaking and marched "holding scarfs and beer cans aloft, serenading the crowd with their theme song, 'I'm Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover'" (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 12/2). MLS Philadelphia CEO Nick Sakiewicz said that the team's ownership group "may be adjusting exactly what combination of residential, retail and commercial development goes in place" around the stadium. Sakiewicz: "You always want to optimize what you're building so it will actually sell. It's not a question of if it will be built, but timing and what you need to tweak in order to sell it" (DELAWARE COUNTY TIMES, 12/2).
GETTING THE BALL ROLLING: Keystone Sports & Entertainment (KSE), the ownership group of the MLS Philadelphia franchise, has named Panasonic as the official technology partner of the team’s new stadium. Panasonic will receive rights to stadium marks and logos, scoreboard and LED signage and an in-stadium area called “The Panasonic Experience” (KSE). Panasonic's products will be purchased at favorable prices and used throughout the stadium for everything from televisions and LED signage to point-of-sale and security systems. The deal is not a value-in-kind deal but a multi-year cash deal valued in the seven figures. Sakiewicz: "We're going to be [Panasonic's] showroom for products on the East Coast. They cover so much breadth of products that they really are an ideal partner." Panasonic joins Crozer-Keystone Health Systems & Premier Orthopaedics as the second Founding Partner. Panasonic also is a league partner with MLS (Tripp Mickle, SportsBusiness Journal).
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