Jason Kelce made his regular appearance on WIP and didn’t hold back on the Sixers’ proposed arena plans.
This guy really is everywhere these days.
Former Eagle Jason Kelce went on 94 WIP’s morning show today to discuss several topics, including the news of the approval for plans of the Sixers’ downtown arena on Market East.
You can listen to Kelce’s full quote on the matter below, but to sum things up, he’s not a fan of the move.
Jason Kelce’s full response to the new agreement to build a Sixers arena in Center City: “At the end of the day people are probably going to love it..But right now I really hate it.”
pic.twitter.com/M1uYBDFWgt https://t.co/FgBOmqkYYq
— SPORTSRADIO 94WIP (@SportsRadioWIP) September 19, 2024
Kelce’s stance, like so many others on this topic, makes a lot of good points but doesn’t quite capture the whole picture.
His main gripe is that Sixers ownership “strong-armed” the city by threatening to leave to New Jersey. He brought up multiple times how the Cleveland Browns left for Baltimore in 1996 due to a dispute between the owner and the city, and how that experience scarred him growing up a Browns fan.
While Kelce is certainly right here, it always sucks when billionaires play around when people’s livelihoods for leverage, it’s not quite an apples to apples comparison.
Yes, Sixers ownership did use New Jersey’s offer as leverage over the city of Philadelphia. However, they weren’t going to move to a completely different city and take up a completely different name.
It’s also important to remember that, as of now, the project is privately funded. A lot can change between now and 2031, but as of now, the Sixers aren’t asking for the city to pay for this arena.
Since doing the radio hit, Kelce has since clarified that he also didn’t realize that the Sixers were currently tenets of the Wells Fargo Center. He’s said it makes a lot of sense that the Sixers want to be owners of their own building.
To be clear, I would absolutely support the Sixers building their own arena in South Philadelphia. The renting thing isn’t fair to them, I just hate the strong arming of the city to force an inevitable move into an area that the local residents, and vast majority of… https://t.co/jJifC1XWip
— Jason Kelce (@JasonKelce) September 19, 2024
Many of his reasons for wanting the Sixers to stay in South Philadelphia have been shared a lot recently, and there’s a lot of validity to them as well.
Having the entire complex in one spot is unique. He also made sure to mention that this project could displace a lot of residents.
Kelce did make sure to clarify that he thinks the new arena in Center City could be really cool, and that in 10 years he expects a lot of people to come around on it.
While he wants to approach the topic with a positive mindset, it makes sense that he doesn’t want to give this ownership group the benefit of the doubt. As he pointed out, this is the same group that owns the New Jersey Devils and Washington Commanders.