76ers CEO Adam Aron said the team needs a new practice facility as the players “spend far more time at the practice facility than they do” at Wells Fargo Center, according to John George of the PHILADELPHIA BUSINESS JOURNAL. Aron said the practice facility is “really where their home is.” Aron: “As we are approaching free agents to want to come to play in Philadelphia over the next several seasons, it will take two to tango. They have to want to come here in addition to us wanting to get them. If the practice facility is state of the art, that’s a big factor in attracting big-time talent. But 40,000-square-foot buildings don’t get designed and built in a day, so it will take some time for that to happen. But it’s certainly a high priority. We are already scouting sites.” Aron added, “We would certainly have a naming rights sponsor on the building.” Meanwhile, he said of sponsorships, “Almost all of our corporate sponsorships are up for renewal. This is one of the areas we identified when we bought the team that was ripe with opportunities.” Aron: “As of July 1, it will squarely become our responsibility to build and enhance and grow our corporate sponsorships. We hired Tom Ward from the New Orleans Hornets. ... By all accounts he’s one of the best sponsorship guys in the entire NBA. It was a real coup to land Tom. He’s very knowledgeable. We’re going to dedicate a lot of resources to his burgeoning department. We want to triple sponsorship revenues” (PHILADELPHIA BUSINESS JOURNAL 7/6 issue).
