Wachovia Spectrum

The Wachovia Spectrum (formerly known as the Spectrum (1967-1994), CoreStates Spectrum (1994-1998) and First Union Spectrum (1998-2003)) is an indoor arena located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Completed in 1967, it seats 18,136 for basketball and 17,380 for ice hockey and indoor football. The arena was the second building completed in what has become the South Philadelphia Sports Complex, the first being the John F. Kennedy Stadium, which was located directly south of the arena (and replaced by the Spectrum's successor, the Wachovia Center). Veterans Stadium was located to the north of the arena.

History

The arena was the home of the Philadelphia Flyers of the NHL and the Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA from 1967-1996. Because of its location on Broad Street the Flyers of the 1970s were known as the "Broad Street Bullies."

The Spectrum was conceived and built to accommodate expansion of the NHL into Philadelphia, which was awarded an expansion team for the 1967-68 season. Ground was broken on the arena in June, 1966, and finished in 16 months at a cost of $12 million. The 76ers moved there from Convention Hall. On February 17, 1968, the building's roof blew off due to a storm during a performance of the Ice Capades. The Spectrum was closed for several weeks while the roof was repaired. While the 76ers were able to move their home games to Convention Hall or to the Palestra, neither of those arenas had ice rinks at the time and there were no other NHL-quality sites in the Philadelphia area. Thus the Flyers hurriedly moved one home game to Madison Square Garden in New York and another to Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto before establishing a temporary base at Le Colisée in Quebec City, home of their top minor league team.

Though both teams left for the Wachovia Center (located on the former site of John F. Kennedy Stadium) in 1996, the arena remains in place and is still used by the Philadelphia Phantoms of the AHL, the Philadelphia Kixx of the MISL, the Philadelphia Soul of the Arena Football League for Saturday home games, and other sporting events and concerts. The 1970 and 1976 NBA All-Star Game and the 1976 and 1992 NHL All-Star Games were also held here. The 76ers played there in the NBA Finals in 1977, 1980, 1982, and 1983. The Flyers played there in the Stanley Cup Finals in 1974, 1975, 1976, 1980, 1985, and 1987,. The Flyers won the Stanley Cup there on May 19, 1974, defeating the Boston Bruins, 1-0.

The Spectrum is frequently used for many basketball tournaments, including Big Five games, eight Atlantic Ten Conference tournaments (1977, 1983, 1997-2002), the 1992 NCAA East Regional (site of the famous last-second shot by Christian Laettner of Duke to beat Kentucky), and the 1976 and 1981 Final Fours (interestingly, both won by Bobby Knight's Indiana Hoosiers). The Spectrum was an important venue for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), due to the fact that Philadelphia was and still is a hotbed for wrestling. The WWF hosted shows on a more or less monthly basis for over fifteen years (including SummerSlam in 1990 and various live events featuring stars like Hulk Hogan.The Grateful Dead played the Spectrum 53 times, by far the most of any musical act. Smaller conference still prefer holding tournament games at this venue, over the larger arena nearby.

Pink Floyd performed two nights at this venue on their 1977 Animals tour. On the second night, Floyd member Roger Waters fell ill and did most of the show after a painkiller injection. However, the painkiller wore off and was taken to the hospital and missed the final encore of "Us and Them" where second guitarist Snowy White had to fill in on bass guitar. Unbeknownst to the crowd, this was the first time that the rest of Pink Floyd (guitarist/vocalist David Gilmour, drummer Nick Mason and keyboard player Rick Wright) performed a song live without Waters (they would go on without him as of 1986). Roger's experience whilst performing ill at this venue would be documented on "Comfortably Numb".

Rocky

A statue of Sylvester Stallone, depicting him in his famous role of Philadelphia boxer Rocky Balboa, stood in front of the main entrance to Wachovia Spectrum, which was the site of Rocky's first fight with Apollo Creed.

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History

Rocky