Wells Fargo is Dropping Naming Rights at the South Philly Home of Flyers and Sixers

Shocking news out of South Philly. The arena formerly known as the CoreStates, First Union, and Wachovia Center will now add Wells Fargo to that list because the bank is bowing out next August according to Gillian Tan and Christopher Palmeri at Bloomberg:

The bank’s deal with arena owner, Comcast Corp., expires in August of next year, according to a spokesperson for the Philadelphia-based media and telecom giant.

“We are grateful for our long-standing relationship with Wells Fargo and look forward to working with a new partner as we continue to bring the best sports and entertainment experience to fans in the Philadelphia region,” Comcast’s Spectacor unit said in a statement.

Wells Fargo has been pulling away from such sponsorships, taking its name off of a PGA Tour event last year and a Jacksonville, Florida, office tower this year.

Good. Get the stink of the Wells Fargo Center out of there. Neither team has ever had any success in that place as long as a bank has owned the naming rights. They’ve had more Arena Bowl Championships won in there then NHL and NBA combined.

Wells Fargo did have one of the sweetest naming rights deals ever. They only spent $1.4 million annually to be the rights holder of The Center. Compare that to Lincoln Financial who pays $12 million annually through 2032 and Citizens Bank which pays $3.8 million annually, but whose deal is up in a couple years, and that’s chump change. Compare it to Crypto.com arena out in Los Angeles who is paying $35 million a year and you can guess the price of the brick is going up:

My first guess is that this will somehow add another wrinkle to the Sixers and Flyers arena drama. My second guess is that it will be called the Xfinity Center when it’s all said and done. And if that’s the case you’re basically abandoning the Sixers by adding more Comcast insignia to the building even though you’re offering them a 50/50 partnership. But if the Sixers can somehow give one more fuck you to the Flyers on their way out the door I’m all for it. I love when billionaires squabble! Would the Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment Center be in play? What about the David Adelman Dome? 76 Place II? It’s all on the table.

Hopefully we get a local company in the mix. The early favorite in the clubhouse on social media is obviously Wawa:

@Wawa the time has come

— 4 for 4 season (@yiffens) July 24, 2024

@Wawa you have the opportunity to do the funniest thing ever

— Jake (@HomeGoodsMGMT) July 24, 2024

pic.twitter.com/ftHHdhznXw

— Philly Shardy (@ShardSlayerr) July 24, 2024

Do they have the scratch? Who knows how much is tied up in their quest to expand westward? Would the Morgan & Morgan Megaplex be a potential name? The only good that would come out of that is getting to call it “The Jawn”. And as a business strategy it makes sense. Anytime someone slips and falls they can sue the building and Jawn Morgan can have one of his people represent them. It’s a win-win. The IBX Center could be a sneaky play with Dan Hilferty’s ties to the insurance giant. If we stay in the financial realm you gotta think Vanguard, SIG, or WSFS are heavy favorites.

If they really want to pay homage to Philadelphia they’ll go with this:

Hear me out https://t.co/CNNiAJeAFL pic.twitter.com/85hIaxqhEO

— Kyle Pagan (@CBKylePagan) July 24, 2024

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