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On Jan 18th Comcast Inc Announced a plan to build a new entertaiment complex and shopping on the grounds of the Wachovia Center. On Jan 22 2008 Comcast Announced Plans to Build shopping and possibly a Hotel where the Spectrum now sits. Please if you are a fan and have many found memories of The Spectrum dont let Comcast destroy it for upscale shopping, hotels, and apartments. The Spectrum is a part of Philadelphia History, and many championships have been won there. More Championships have been won there then any other complex or Arena in Philadelphia history. By Demolishing The Spectrum, the memories
of an entire generation will be demolished as well. For over 40 years The Spectrum has been host to many memorable concerts and events as well. Please take a brief moment, and sign the Petition To Save The Spectrum. The plan is to get enough signatures and present this PETITION to Comcast INC and show them the fans and people of Philadelphia and it's surrounding areas love The Spectrum and want to see it stay for many years to come. Our voices will be heard and The Spectrum's History will live on!
Please Sign The Petition To Save The Wachovia Spectrum....................................................
...Online petition - Save The SpectrumHISTORY AND BIO ABOUT THE SPECTRUMThe 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.[citation needed]) 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.)[1] 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 (????)[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 76'ers games, a great 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 1997) 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.: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.:END OF AN ERA?:
On January 14, 2008, news surfaced that preliminary plans were being considered to demolish the Spectrum to make way for an entertainment complex or a hotelWhen 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"[3]) 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..: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.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
