Philly's Spectrum gives way to the wrecking ball (Philadelphia Inqurier)

By Frank Fitzpatrick

Inquirer Staff Writer

Forty-three years after sporting competition debuted there with Joe Frazier's devastating left hooks, the Spectrum's demolition began Tuesday afternoon with a series of soft jabs to its brick and glass exterior.

Beneath gray skies symbolic of the funereal mood, a crowd of several thousand Philadelphia sports fans - passionate, sentimental and a bit shabby - gathered on the Spectrum's south side to witness both its demolition and the formal goodbyes from some of the graying performers who had starred there.


"It's a sad day," said ex-76ers great Julius Erving, "because some memories will be taken away." That process began at 12:33 p.m. when, more than a year after the South Philadelphia arena formally closed, a four-ton orange wrecking ball began a surprisingly tentative assault on the multipurpose facility once billed as "America's Showplace."

A Comcast-Spectacor official said it would take "four to five months" for the building to be razed. Sometime after that, the first phase of Philly Live, a retail, entertainment and dining development aimed at capitalizing on its proximity to the busy sports complex, will get started.

Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/sixers/20101124_Philly_s_Spectrum_gives_way_to_the_wrecking_ball.htm

Also see: http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/flyers/20101124_Bob_Ford__Spectrum_transcended_its_unremarkable_structure.html