Comcast-Spectacor
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Comcast-Spectacor is a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania based sports and entertainment company. It owns the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League, the Philadelphia Phantoms of the American Hockey League, and the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association. The company owns and manages the Wachovia Center and Wachovia Spectrum in South Philadelphia, plus several community skating rinks in the Philadelphia region known as Flyers Skate Zone. The 24-hour regional sports network Comcast SportsNet is also owned by the company.
The company was formed in 1974 by Flyers founder and chairman Ed Snider to own both the Flyers and the Spectrum. Snider had been instrumental in getting the Spectrum built in 1967, and assumed control of the arena in 1971. He sold a 63% stake in Spectacor to Comcast in 1996, forming Comcast-Spectacor. Shortly afterward, he bought the 76ers; as the Spectrum's owner, he had been the Sixers' landlord since 1971.
[edit] Global Spectrum
Comcast-Spectacor is the principal owner of Global Spectrum. The company manages and operates public assembly facilities throughout the United States and Canada, such as arenas, civic and convention centers, stadiums, university convocation centers, trade and exposition centers, community ice rinks and theaters. Some of the arenas and stadiums currently managed by Global Spectrum are Arizona Cardinals Stadium, Glendale, AZ, Citizens Bank Park in Global Spectrum's corporate hometown of Philadelphia, PA, Hale Arena and Kemper Arena, both in Kansas City, MO (Hale and Kemper Arena's are also known as the American Royal Complex), the UCF Convocation Center (opening 2007), BankUnited Center at the University of Miami in Miami, FL, University of Massachusetts Mullins Center, located in Amherst, MA, the Ohio State University Jerome Schottenstein Center, in Columbus, OH, Fargodome, located in Fargo, ND, Spartan Stadium in San Jose, CA, and Aviators Stadium, which is located in Corpus Christi, TX. Global Spectrum works in conjunction with another Comcast-Spectacor entity called Front Row Marketing Services, which works to identify new revenue streams at facilities.
[edit] Other businesses
Comcast-Spectacor owns Ovations Food Services, which provides food and beverage services to arenas, stadiums, amphitheaters, fairgrounds and convention centers throughout the United States. New Era Tickets is the full-service ticketing subsidiary of Comcast-Spectacor, and provides in-house ticketing in the US and Canada. In Philadelphia, the company operates under the name comcastTIX and provides tickets to events at Wachovia Complex, Liacouras Center at Temple University, Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton, NJ, and the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa in Atlantic City, NJ. In a partnership with Disson Skating, Comcast-Spectacor produces 10 annually televised figure skating programs on NBC.
