The New York Times did a lengthy Q&A with Flyers chairman Ed Snider this week prior to the Winter Classic. Snider addresses a range of topics and it's a worthy read, but I found his description of how the Spectrum was built and the difference between building the Wells Fargo Center, to be particularly interesting.
↵↵↵But at the same time it gave us a great opportunity. There were no facilities in Philadelphia. I thought a proper type of arena would help a lot. We had to build the Spectrum to get the franchise. But the truth of the matter is the city desperately needed an arena. The Sixers were playing in a convention center and at the Palestra.
↵The Spectrum alone was a major project that helped the Flyers succeed. It was constructed in 11 months and was actually finished 16 months after we first thought about it.
↵By contrast, we built another arena on the same lot in the mid-’90s, what is now the Wells Fargo Center. It took two years of construction and many years to get it off the ground. The original papers for the Spectrum were maybe four inches thick. When we finished with the Wells Fargo Center, the papers were stacked maybe four feet high. That’s how the world has changed.
↵