A True 'Spect'acle

"The Flyers win the Stanley Cup! The Flyers Win the Stanley Cup!"

These words, spoken by the immortal Gene Hart, were heard on the telecast of the Flyers vs. Bruins game in the Stanley Cup finals in 1974.

Hart spoke those historic words while sitting in the press box of the historic Spectrum on Broad St. in Philadelphia. From their first year in 1967, until their move accross the street to the Corestates Center in 1996, the Philadelphia Flyers played on the ice of that arena.

Today I found out that plans to build up what will be known as "Philly Live" around the area of the Spectrum, Citizen's Bank Ballpark, Lincoln Financial Field and the Wachovia Center. The plan, which includes a 300 room hotel, would include the deletion and demolition of the Spectrum.

Sure, the planned area looks amazing in the artists' renderings that are flying around. Sure, the economy would be exponentialy aided by this plan. But they'd be getting rid of history to do so. There is a certain charm and character to that area of Philadelphia. The entire sports complex area has a blue-collar feel for blue-collar teams with blue-collar fans. "Philly Live" would destroy that character and charm while white washing the blue-collar feel and philosophy of Philly.

That arena holds many memories for many fans of both the Flyers and the Sixers, as well as the Kixx and the Phantoms, all of whom have won championships on its multiple surfaces.

For me, I saw my first live hockey game in the Spectrum, it was loud and kind of scary to my 8-year old self but it lead me down a path of love for the fastest sport on earth. Though I was not lucky enough to be alive when the Flyers won the Cup in the arena, I was lucky enough to be within its walls for the first Calder Cup championship of the Philadelphia Phantoms.

In the last decade or so I have only been able to attend about 5-6 events in the Spectrum, and now that I think that it may be torn down for a complex of commerce and competitive prices makes me long for the hallowed halls and familliar smell of the truely special sports center.