March 21, 2010
Wachovia Center (Capacity: 19,519)
Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia Flyers vs Atlanta Thrashers
Final Score: 1 – 3
* The arena has been renamed Wells Fargo Center
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Our tour of Philadelphia continued as we visited the Wachovia Center, our 3rd stadium in the city within the last nine months. The City of Brotherly Love is the fifth largest in the U.S. and is located in the southeast corner of Pennsylvania, between the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers. History has a big place here and there are many places to visit that feature Philadelphia’s storied past. It was a 75-degree March day when we visited and the conditions were perfect to explore the city before heading to the Sports Complex in South Philadelphia. The Wachovia Center opened in 1996 and replaced the Spectrum as the home to the Philadelphia Flyers (along with the 76ers in the NBA). The Flyers are one of the more successful franchises in the NHL as they have made the playoffs 34 times out of their 42 seasons. Two of those resulted in Stanley Cup championships, but that was in the early-mid 1970s and the fans are eager for another title. Nicknamed the “Broad Street Bullies” after their usually rough and tumble ways, the Flyers play in a loud arena with a great, but tough atmosphere.
Prestige Ranking: 4 out of 5
Location
All of Philadelphia’s professional teams play in the Sports Complex, located about 3 miles south of Center City (the “downtown” part of Philly). With Lincoln Financial Field and Citizens Bank Park in this complex, the surroundings were made up of a sea of concrete for parking. If you’re thinking about checking out the rest of South Philadelphia beyond sports….don’t. It’s not worth it. What is worth travelling 10-15 minutes for is the historical stuff at Independence National Park in Old City. It’s a really nice area and you’ll find plenty of interesting sites, including the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. Other attractions are not far away and the most recommended include Reading Terminal Market, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Elfreth’s Alley.
Location Ranking: 4 out of 10
Accessibility / Parking
The set-up makes for a very simple, easy drive with the arena located just off I-95 on Broad Street. It’s also accessible from I-76. Getting in is easy and so is parking as it is plentiful in the huge stadium lots. Leaving the complex is ok, but the exit onto 95 is confusing as there is a very short distance to make sure you’re in the correct lane for the direction you want to go on 95 (and drivers aren’t exactly courteous at letting you in).. Make sure to add extra time if the game coincides with an evening rush hour as all of the area highways get quite congested. Mass transit is another option as there is a subway station at the facility with the last stop on the Broad Street (Orange) line being Pattison Ave and the Sports Complex. It’s an “eh” Mass Transit system, nothing special, but it gets the job done.
Accessibility / Parking Ranking: 7 out of 8
Exterior
The exterior is nothing special as the building has a rectangular shape with the oval design of a seating bowl also visible. Brown brick is used for much of the exterior, with other walls done in white. The “Wachovia Center” logo is located largely on different sections and in a couple spots it shamelessly says “A Comcast Venue” underneath. There is a little area to congregate in front of the building, otherwise it is a sea of parking lot.
Exterior Ranking: 4 out of 10
Concourse
This continues to be an average arena as the concourse isn’t much different. Many displays at least spruce up the area. The lower level concourse circles the area and while it is a little bit tight in spots, the corners feature additional room as things open up there. This is also where a make-shift team store is located. Escalators take you up to a much smaller concourse around the second level and these had neat touches too like some old-school air hockey games. Space however is an issue.
Concourse Ranking: 3 out of 5
Food
In the AT&T Pavilion, is Chickie’s & Pete’s with their famous crab fries being the most popular item at the game. Along with the usuals, the rest of the arena featured stands for Philly favorites like cheesesteaks, hoagies and water ice. Butch’s barbeque had my favorite assortment of choices. Beer also had a local flavor to go along with traditional national offerings. There are five restaurants in the arena and two of them are open to the public: PJ Whelihan’s and the AT&T Pavilion. Both were packed and seemed to have a great sports-bar atmosphere.
Food Ranking: 6.5 out of 8
Interior
Inside the Wachovia Center is a simply-designed, burgundy-colored seating bowl. It is an oval shape following the dimensions of the rink and there are two levels. In between each deck is a row of luxury suites and a row of regular seats with access to an interior club or restaurant. Suites and the press box also circle the very top of the arena. The majority of all sightlines are pretty good and the upper deck isn’t that far from the ice. There is one issue though as even though the rows in the higher level are steep, I found the heads of other fans in front of me to be in the way of the ice view. Might not be steep enough as that is annoying. Given the nature of the Flyers, a fancy-schmancy design wouldn’t seem to fit, so although there’s clearly nothing special with the Wachovia Center, I think the design works for the franchise. The normalized nature of the building and lack of disruptive specialty seating in the bowl helps to increase the atmosphere and really let the fans take over.
Interior Ranking: 6 out of 14
Scoreboard
The scoreboard has a stacked appearance with a combination of circular and square displays one on top of the other. Overall, it is nice as four large, HD video screens fill the main portion. They use the boards well as there is no silliness, just the game video, replays and fan shots. Above the video screens are smaller graphic boards that are reserved for game information (score, time, shots, etc). This is certainly fancier than your normal digital score as the team logos are in the background. Side and circular advertising panels make up the rest of the scoreboard.
Scoreboard Ranking: 3.5 out of 4
Displays
Excellent job as the concourse is filled with a wide range of displays. The best one in my opinion is the Flyers Experience, which features an interactive wall exhibit that displays the history of the team (there is one for the Sixers too). Other highlighted concourse features include a Flyers Hall of Fame and a case for all the hats thrown when a player gets a hat trick at home. Inside, the rafters are filled with banners ranging from division and conference championships to Stanley Cups and Flyers Hall of Fame members. All banners follow the same pattern with an orange background and the logo at the bottom. The banners are lined up in rows (along with the 76er ones), though the pattern makes it impossible to read the ones in the middle. There are also four numbers retired, with Bernie Parent and Bobby Clarke being the most notable.
Displays Ranking: 5 out of 6
Cost
Ticket prices on average are high, but certainly not crazy as we only paid $26 for a 13th row seat in the mezzanine level. Overall expense put the Flyers in the Top 10 of the NHL. The other high prices for concessions are on par with the league and so is the $15 parking charge.
Cost Ranking: 6 out of 8
Fan Support
Fan support is terrific for the Flyers as they are consistently top 5 in league attendance and for the last three seasons have averaged at or above 100% capacity. There is a large following of the team and this area has always been quite passionate about hockey. It was a full house for the game I attended with empty seats few and far between. The only reason I couldn’t give a perfect ranking is because the Eagles are still kings of the city.
Fan Support Ranking: 7 out of 8
Atmosphere
Fans at Flyers games are as passionate as they come as all of the attention is focused on the game and action on the ice. It was rare to hear a side conversation or people getting distracted, they are here for hockey and they know the game really well. This was very refreshing to see at a sporting event and made for a terrific atmosphere to watch a game. Wachovia Center helps this along nicely as there was no mascot and no t-shirt toss. Just simple intermission contests and TV-timeout videos. It seemed like almost every fan had some sort of Flyers gear or jersey on and the building turns orange when the playoffs come around. Crowd noise was great and the most common chant was “Let’s go Flyers”. Their first and only goal brought just about everyone to their feet and Wachovia Center becomes a very loud building. Fans are passionate both good and bad. At our game, I didn’t see any mean-spirited, obnoxious jerks, they were just rough on their team when they feel it was deserved (however, keep in mind this game was against blah Atlanta). Home goalie Brian Boucher took the brunt of it during this game and at times the boo-birds were out. After a demoralizing goal late in the third, just about half the arena got up and angrily stormed out, not to beat the traffic, but because they were mad and knew the game was over (which it was).
Atmosphere Ranking: 11 out of 14
Other Stuff
Cable giant Comcast owns the team and their name is disgustingly plastered all over the building. Most notable is inside, where underneath the top suite/box level, it says “Welcome to Comcast Country”. What does that even mean? “Welcome to the area where most cable subscribers have Comcast since it is the only option”?….The Flyers old building, the Spectrum, sits across the parking lot and was one of the most intimidating in the league. However, it will be torn down later this year…..A great tradition that started in the Spectrum was Kate Smith singing “God Bless America”. So successful were the Flyers when she sang that, they started to have her during big games. That tradition continues today as it is played during playoff games, with Lauren Hart splitting the song with Smith as it is played on the jumbotron.
Game
In the game, Atlanta jumped out to a two-goal lead halfway through the first. The Flyers had long stretches in the Atlanta zone for the first two periods, but not one of their 35 shots got past Andrej Pavelec. Finally, with 8 minutes left in the third, Mike Richards cut the lead in half. As the pressure continued and the crowd got louder and sensed it, Flyers goalie Brian Boucher let in his second soft goal of the night and Atlanta won 3-1. Pavelec finished with 44 saves.
Stadium and Arena Visits 
