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News March 21, 2010 Game On! Chester ready to become 'major league' destination Sunday, March 21, 2010 By VICKY THOMAS vthomas@delcotimes.com CHESTER — The city’s ailing waterfront needed a spark. A newly forming Major League Soccer team needed a stadium. That was the message delivered at Turbine Hall in February 2008 when Major League Soccer officials and state legislators announced plans to build a stadium in Chester on the Delaware River waterfront. Fast forward to 2010. Construction of the $115-million, 18,500-seat PPL Park is three months away from completion, and the Philadelphia Union will line up for first kick in Seattle Thursday. “It took a lot of work, a lot of hard negotiations,” said Nick Sakiewicz, Union CEO and operating partner, at a recent panel discussion at Widener University. The Union’s first two games at home games will be held at Lincoln Financial Field in South Philadelphia beginning with their home opener April 10 against D.C. United. “We are very excited for Philadelphia Union’s season kickoff. All the way across the country we will be watching and cheering for the team,” said Chester Mayor Wendell N. Butler Jr. “This historic arrival of Major League Soccer will bring new visibility to Chester when the team plays its first game on national television. The stadium really makes a fine addition to the city’s ongoing revitalization, bringing new jobs and setting the stage for future development.” Sakiewicz said Thursday that construction of the stadium is on target. “Despite the crazy snowstorms we had, it didn’t really affect our timeline or our schedule. Construction is continuing on and there is a flurry of activity out there, lots of workers. It’s going well,” he said. A June 27 match, also against Seattle, will mark the Union’s debut in Chester — a franchise that has been a long-time coming, according to Sakiewicz. “We started (Major League Soccer) in 1995, and our first season was in 1996. Each of those years, we always wanted to bring a team to the Philadelphia market,” he said. Sakiewicz said soccer fans in the area have traveled to Washington, D.C., or New York without having a home team of their own. “Philadelphia has kind of sat on the sidelines of Major League Soccer for 15 seasons,” he said. While MLS was ready to add Philadelphia as the league’s 16th team, what executives didn’t want was to play their season in the 65,000-seat Lincoln Financial Field, which was too big and under the Eagles’ control, Sakiewicz said. “The Linc is a great stadium. Our opener, we’ll probably do 30,000 to 40,000. That will be good too, but PPL Park will be a real special place for soccer fans,” he said. “Soccer is very different than any other sport. I always say that 20,000 soccer fans make more noise than 40,000 fans of another sport.” Groundbreaking at the stadium was held Dec. 1, 2008. PPL Park sits a few yards away from the Wharf at Rivertown and a few miles from Harrah’s Chester Casino and Racetrack, which opened its doors in 2006. “I see the stadium and the opening of the stadium as another piece of the reinvention of the Chester waterfront,” said Dave Sciocchetti, director of the Chester Economic Development Authority. “Add the stadium to Harrah’s and the pending arrival of table games, and it’s probably not too long after that we’ll start to see that the Chester waterfront will be enhanced as a destination for people looking for fun and entertainment. That’s certainly a new and exciting concept for the city.” Another new concept for the city is the idea of Chester on national television on a regular basis. When the Philadelphia Union lines up for the first kickoff in their new stadium June 27, soccer fans from Seattle and other cities will tune into ESPN, live from Chester with views of the Delaware River and the Commodore Barry Bridge. “When people first see images of Chester, someone sitting in Indiana or Ohio watching ESPN, the images they’ll see are of the park, a beautiful waterfront and … a beautiful view of New Jersey,” said Tom Veit, president of the Union. The Union will be on national television for 17 games and 13 games will air locally on Channel 6. “The city of Chester is going to get enormous amount of play on TV, both national and local,” said Sakiewicz. The team has already sold 10,000 season tickets, Sakiewicz said. By the end of the year, Sakiewicz expects 1 million people will have visited Chester to take in a Union game. “That’s the start, not the end, of selling Chester as a cool place to be, and maybe to put a restaurant, to buy a home or to go to work. That’s the idea behind the stadium, to kick-start Chester,” Sakiewicz said. That’s a mass of people coming to the waterfront who likely have never visited Chester before, Sciocchetti pointed out. “A whole new group of people are going to come down here and enjoy the views and the city, and I hope they go away with an experience that leaves them thinking, ‘That was a really fun experience, I enjoyed my stay and had a good time at the waterfront.’ That’s something not too long ago, people didn’t realize that was even possible,” Sciocchetti said. The volume of visitors could lead to other businesses, such as hotels or restaurants, to set up shop in the area, Sciocchetti said. “Certainly (it is) reasonable to expect … that as this activity comes online, and in the next couple years, we’re going to see some spin-off development geared toward capturing the visitors now coming to the waterfront,” he said. While tourism in the city will get a boost from the soccer stadium, Sciocchetti said the economic stability of the waterfront will also improve. “Historically, the waterfront was manufacturing and industrial from one end to the other. Now we have a much more diverse economy on the waterfront, with some of the historical manufacturers like Kimberly-Clark now interspersed with other uses like Harrah’s and the stadium,” he said. “A diverse economy is more stable and more likely to weather economic downturns. It’s not having all our eggs in one economic basket.”

News
March 21, 2010

Game On! Chester ready to become 'major league' destination
Sunday, March 21, 2010

By VICKY THOMAS
vthomas@delcotimes.com

CHESTER — The city’s ailing waterfront needed a spark. A newly forming Major League Soccer team needed a stadium.

That was the message delivered at Turbine Hall in February 2008 when Major League Soccer officials and state legislators announced plans to build a stadium in Chester on the Delaware River waterfront.

Fast forward to 2010. Construction of the $115-million, 18,500-seat PPL Park is three months away from completion, and the Philadelphia Union will line up for first kick in Seattle Thursday.

“It took a lot of work, a lot of hard negotiations,” said Nick Sakiewicz, Union CEO and operating partner, at a recent panel discussion at Widener University.

The Union’s first two games at home games will be held at Lincoln Financial Field in South Philadelphia beginning with their home opener April 10 against D.C. United.

“We are very excited for Philadelphia Union’s season kickoff. All the way across the country we will be watching and cheering for the team,” said Chester Mayor Wendell N. Butler Jr.

“This historic arrival of Major League Soccer will bring new visibility to Chester when the team plays its first game on national television. The stadium really makes a fine addition to the city’s ongoing revitalization, bringing new jobs and setting the stage for future development.”

Sakiewicz said Thursday that construction of the stadium is on target.

“Despite the crazy snowstorms we had, it didn’t really affect our timeline or our schedule. Construction is continuing on and there is a flurry of activity out there, lots of workers. It’s going well,” he said.

A June 27 match, also against Seattle, will mark the Union’s debut in Chester — a franchise that has been a long-time coming, according to Sakiewicz.

“We started (Major League Soccer) in 1995, and our first season was in 1996. Each of those years, we always wanted to bring a team to the Philadelphia market,” he said.

Sakiewicz said soccer fans in the area have traveled to Washington, D.C., or New York without having a home team of their own.

“Philadelphia has kind of sat on the sidelines of Major League Soccer for 15 seasons,” he said.

While MLS was ready to add Philadelphia as the league’s 16th team, what executives didn’t want was to play their season in the 65,000-seat Lincoln Financial Field, which was too big and under the Eagles’ control, Sakiewicz said.

“The Linc is a great stadium. Our opener, we’ll probably do 30,000 to 40,000. That will be good too, but PPL Park will be a real special place for soccer fans,” he said.

“Soccer is very different than any other sport. I always say that 20,000 soccer fans make more noise than 40,000 fans of another sport.”

Groundbreaking at the stadium was held Dec. 1, 2008. PPL Park sits a few yards away from the Wharf at Rivertown and a few miles from Harrah’s Chester Casino and Racetrack, which opened its doors in 2006.

“I see the stadium and the opening of the stadium as another piece of the reinvention of the Chester waterfront,” said Dave Sciocchetti, director of the Chester Economic Development Authority.

“Add the stadium to Harrah’s and the pending arrival of table games, and it’s probably not too long after that we’ll start to see that the Chester waterfront will be enhanced as a destination for people looking for fun and entertainment. That’s certainly a new and exciting concept for the city.”

Another new concept for the city is the idea of Chester on national television on a regular basis.

When the Philadelphia Union lines up for the first kickoff in their new stadium June 27, soccer fans from Seattle and other cities will tune into ESPN, live from Chester with views of the Delaware River and the Commodore Barry Bridge.

“When people first see images of Chester, someone sitting in Indiana or Ohio watching ESPN, the images they’ll see are of the park, a beautiful waterfront and … a beautiful view of New Jersey,” said Tom Veit, president of the Union.

The Union will be on national television for 17 games and 13 games will air locally on Channel 6.

“The city of Chester is going to get enormous amount of play on TV, both national and local,” said Sakiewicz.

The team has already sold 10,000 season tickets, Sakiewicz said. By the end of the year, Sakiewicz expects 1 million people will have visited Chester to take in a Union game.

“That’s the start, not the end, of selling Chester as a cool place to be, and maybe to put a restaurant, to buy a home or to go to work. That’s the idea behind the stadium, to kick-start Chester,” Sakiewicz said.

That’s a mass of people coming to the waterfront who likely have never visited Chester before, Sciocchetti pointed out.

“A whole new group of people are going to come down here and enjoy the views and the city, and I hope they go away with an experience that leaves them thinking, ‘That was a really fun experience, I enjoyed my stay and had a good time at the waterfront.’ That’s something not too long ago, people didn’t realize that was even possible,” Sciocchetti said.

The volume of visitors could lead to other businesses, such as hotels or restaurants, to set up shop in the area, Sciocchetti said.

“Certainly (it is) reasonable to expect … that as this activity comes online, and in the next couple years, we’re going to see some spin-off development geared toward capturing the visitors now coming to the waterfront,” he said.

While tourism in the city will get a boost from the soccer stadium, Sciocchetti said the economic stability of the waterfront will also improve.

“Historically, the waterfront was manufacturing and industrial from one end to the other. Now we have a much more diverse economy on the waterfront, with some of the historical manufacturers like Kimberly-Clark now interspersed with other uses like Harrah’s and the stadium,” he said.

“A diverse economy is more stable and more likely to weather economic downturns. It’s not having all our eggs in one economic basket.”