I saw my first 76ers game in the mid 70's there along with annual Harlem Globetrotters games. I was a Flyers fan first and foremost. But tickets were out of reach at the time and the secondary market for tickets was not established outside of the seedy scalpers who roamed the parking lots. Many Philadelphians treked to the Capital Center in Washington to see the Flyers play on the road back for many years as home tickets were too tough to come by.
It wasn't until the 1981 playoffs that I got to see my first Flyers game at the Spectrum. Brian Propp had a hat trick that night. The Flyers won that night but eventually lost the series to Calgary.
When I moved back to the area (South Jersey) in the early 90's I bought a co-workers tickets in Section Y for a number of years. The team was not making the playoffs at the time. Then came Eric Lindros. The building still sold out. In 1995 I got with 3 other co-workers to buy a season ticket package. With the acquisition of John LeClair and Eric Desjardins the Flyers were a force once again.
Our seats were in the third level behind one of the nets. A bathroom trip required a walk down the crows nest steps, down the steps in the 2nd level, down the steps to the concourse to another set of steps to the basement pissers. A trek up to the top was tricky trying not to spill a beer or two.
We were offered seats in the much more desirable 2nd level one year. We took a vote and decided to stay where we were with the fans we got to know over the years.
We kept the tickets when the team vacated the legendary Spectrum to the new, sterile Big House in 1996. The new building had no Crows Nest as a third level. Our seat assignments came in and to our surprise they were in the same corner but in the 2nd level, Row 3. A surprise.
The home opener of the Core States Center arrived. We went to our new seats (I was already in the building twice prior for the 1996 World Cup) down low in the 2nd level. I immediately commented how the vantage point (distance to ice) really did not change for us. The new 2nd level was much higher than the Spectrum and the distance from this ice was that much further back.
The Spectrum became a new home for us. Home of the Phantoms. We were there for their home opener. My 2 young boys grew up Phantoms fans first. Flyers fans second.
With the demolition of the Spectrum I landed 2 seats for the garage. Outside of The Vet, The Spectrum is the venue where I saw the most events in my lifetime. I never took to the Core States/First Union/Wachovia/Wells Fargo Center. The new place can never generate the raw enthusiasm and passion of the hard core Flyers fan.
