It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of blind faith, it was the epoch of “fake news”, it was the season of The Birds, it was the season of the two teams that occupy the Wells Fargo Center, thus it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had a possible Super Bowl before us, we had missing the playoffs/a first-round exit before us, we were all going direct to a parade, we were all going direct to Getting ‘Em Next Year…
This is NOT a political organization. As the de facto head of GENY, I feel like I need to take a second to provide this disclaimer, I think most politicians are self-interested at best and at worst corrupt, so throw them all in the volcano if I can keep with the classic literature references. That being said, I am going to say a few things about some prominent people, because most outlets talking about this are going to kiss the proverbial ring…
The Harris Group, Comcast, and the Death of the Market East Project
The Harris Group and Comcast came to a miraculous agreement earlier this week, becoming 50/50 partners in a new arena proposal in South Philly that all but abandons the Market East project after years of greasing the wheels of the Philadelphia political machine to cast off the outcries of the innumerable citizens that opposed the plan to “revitalize” (nice word for gentrify) an area that borders historic Chinatown, which to editorialize for a moment, it is without fail THE MOST underrated section of this city.
What Happened?
Well, three of the four of us went in-depth on the issue on the latest episode of the flagship GENY show. Still, for the readers out there, the city government plowed through the opposition of the people that have granted them their precious consent to govern to hand an oligarch a billionaire the ability to disrupt Center City for years in the name of profits while displacing people and ruining neighborhoods. But, when that billionaire realized how leveraged he was, and with Congress relinquishing the land that RFK Stadium is on back to the District, Harris needs capital to build a new stadium for the RedCommieClub. ANNNNDDDDD, instead of privately funding the new Sixers arena himself and then competing AGAINST Comcast for concerts/comedians/WWE/Disney/etc. Now they can co-fund a state-of-the-art building and share in the lucrative profits without having to make concessions to secure bookings. (On a personal level, the more I read into all of this and look at the fact that Harris will 100% prioritize his NFL team, I wouldn’t be surprised if Comcast slowly buys pieces of the Sixers until they own a majority share…)
The Oligarchs Win Again
Anyways, the oligarchs figured out how to avoid competition with each other, which of course could hurt profits, and instead listened to their wallets and Roger Goddell, and boom, we have the sham of a press conference we all saw earlier this week. The mayor and city council looked like they were going to cry with how painfully obvious it was that this entire thing was done without their input after they all showed the citizenry (i.e. VOTERS) that they don’t care about your voice, your complaints, your opposition… no, they only care about the invaluable head pats they received from their oligarch overlords… Hopefully we as a city don’t forget this shameful presser when the “improvements to Market East” that both organizations will definitely forget about as it was merely Mayor Parker attempting to save face with all that egg on it…
What About the Fans?
But the real question in this proof that politics are in place to serve the wealthy and NOT the people is, I wonder how much my season tickets are going to increase in 7 / 8 years…
Listen to the flagship show from yesterday for more! I SWEAR we’re not political, here at GENY we are of the belief that everyone sucks equally!
What are your thoughts on this whole mess? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or TikTok.
