“It’s like the people from the Publishers Clearing House, and they’ve come down here and they say: ‘You know what? You just won half a billion dollars.’ I’m ready to put a shovel in the ground.
That’s Chester Mayor Wendell Butler’s intake on receiving the funding from the state that they needed to move one step closer to breaking ground. There isn’t only an 18,500 person stadium going in.
It’s good to see that there exists a sense of grounding with all the people involved in this, as even Governor Ed Rendell explains, “It ain’t over ’til it’s over”. So until they break ground, I will hold my breath…but even then, a good thing is that this project doesn’t hinge on the fact that the MLS awards Philly a team – $25 million is earmarked for the stadium. The fact that MLS has acknowledged that Philly has moved a billion steps closer is a good, good thing.
Garber’s response…
“The Philadelphia market just took a big step forward and is now well positioned to receive an MLS expansion team. The opportunity to be part of a large-scale urban-renewal project along the historic Chester waterfront remains extremely appealing to us. We are eager to continue our conversations with the potential ownership group to finalize an agreement and we will provide more details shortly.
One more piece of funding is yet to be voted on as another $10 million is expected to come from the Delaware Port Authority. Once that is secured, groundbreaking is supposed to take place this fall.
Going down to Rivertown, to see some MLS soccer, sounds nice to me…
Filed under: MLS Philly, expansion | Tagged: Rivertown
Rendell is actually the governor of Pennsylvania, but he might as well be the mayor of Philadelphia, considering the lack of attention he pays to the rest of the state and the amount of time he spends with his cronies there.
Yea, that’s a hell of a slip. Well when you had Street at the helm in Philly, what else can you expect from Rendell!
Now – hopefully – Nutter will right the ship. He better with a name like that…