CBS News Philadelphia's Pat Gallen sat down with Philadelphia 76ers owner Josh Harris and Comcast CEO Brian Roberts about the proposed new arena and the legacy it'll be built on.
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What Brian Roberts said
Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.
Brian Roberts, Chairman and CEO of Comcast, discussed the partnership with Josh Harris to build a new arena in Philadelphia, which will be the largest private investment in the city's history. He emphasized the goal of creating the best hockey and basketball arena in the country, honoring the legacy of the Spectrum and Ed Snider. Roberts highlighted the importance of keeping the Sixers and Flyers together for economic viability, and the use of modern technology and design. He stressed the commitment to the community, creating jobs, and supporting the city. Roberts also noted the 18-month process and the collaborative effort with Josh Harris and David Adelman. He expressed pride in the project and its potential to transform the sports district, while acknowledging the ongoing work with city officials.
Key takeaways
The new arena will be the largest private investment in Philadelphia's history.
Keeping the Sixers and Flyers together makes the economics work for the project.
The design will honor the Spectrum and Ed Snider's legacy.
0:00Can you kind of walk me through what the last few weeks and months have been like leading up to this?
0:59We were like, "That's the one." Unfortunately, it was the most expensive one, but that's our problem, right?
1:45... and all those battles, and kind of our own memories was important, but also creating the best arena in the world in terms of ingress, egress, food, where the seats are located relative to the court or the ice, every little detail, right?
4:23For us, it was all that, but also make it a place where our fans and our players want to come, and opposing fans—including Knicks and Rangers fans, by the way—and opposing players fear to come, right?
6:17How important was it for both of you to be able to give back to the city while also building a first-class arena?
6:32We're still working with them, and they're driving a great deal for the city, and we appreciate that. That's what it takes, right?
Gentlemen, thank you for sitting down. This is obviously a big day for both of your respective franchises. Can you kind of walk me through what the last few weeks and months have been like leading up to this?
Well, I would start by just saying how excited we are to be partnered with Josh and his incredibly talented team, and I think they've done a great job. Once we formed a partnership, it's been nothing but spectacular innovation, pushing each other and trying to come up with what we're showing today as the finest building hopefully anywhere in the country and in the world. And that's been working together. The idea is for our fans and for our city to have the largest private investment ever done in Philadelphia's history, and I can't wait for us to get started. So, thank you Josh and to all your team, and to David Adelman and everybody else that's worked on it, and Dan Hilferty. We just are lucky to have the team we have.
Yeah. Look, the coming together of Comcast, Brian, Dan Hilferty, and ourselves has been an incredible positive. What it's resulted in is what I hope is going to be an arena where we're going to create memories, right? I just remember walking into the Spectrum as a 10-year-old kid with my grandfather and being awed. That's what we hope to do here. We're honoring the past of the Spectrum. What you go through is a lot of details. We looked at many, many renderings, and we all literally saw this one rendering. We were like, "That's the one." Unfortunately, it was the most expensive one, but that's our problem, right?
But that's what you do, right? You're in it to really wow people on the outside. For us, honoring the Spectrum and honoring the Flyers, the Broad Street Bullies, Dr. J, Moses Malone, Charles Barkley, and all those battles, and kind of our own memories was important, but also creating the best arena in the world in terms of ingress, egress, food, where the seats are located relative to the court or the ice, every little detail, right? So, I think that that's what we've been doing and it's a lot of work. You're literally building a house for 20,000 people four days a week, and you're doing it on behalf of a city that we all know has strong points of view. So, we've been hard at work trying to figure it out and to get to this point.
Well, that's a great question. We said it has to be the best hockey arena in the country and the best basketball arena, and that was the core agreement in the partnership. Now, how to make that actually happen required going and looking at every one of those buildings and having a team that agrees that we're not for one, we're for both, and they've honored that brilliantly. Josh and David had an idea of let's make it an homage to the Spectrum. We're going to build on the site of the Spectrum. Obviously, for Ed Snider, who had a big influence on my dad and myself and Dan's life, and all of us who were sports fans in this city, it's a perfect coming together—the Rocky steps when you come in, to the feeling of the intimacy of the Spectrum. We both had the chance to watch many games at the Palestra, and that feeling was what we told the designers we were looking for, yet make it super modern like what Comcast has done with our technology center and our offices, and use video. We're so excited that we're going to put our name on it. This is one of the great partnerships and projects that I think will help transform the evolution of the sports district in Philadelphia. If you look at some of the videos back in the day of that stadium and the Spectrum and where we are and where we're going, it makes you proud to be a Philadelphian.
For us, it was all that, but also make it a place where our fans and our players want to come, and opposing fans—including Knicks and Rangers fans, by the way—and opposing players fear to come, right? So make it an advantage to the home team. Make it a home court advantage. Make it a home ice advantage. Thinking about the sound, where you locate visiting fans, the seats—there's a whole story about that, but at the end of the day, that's what it is. It's about a great place for our fans to come and enjoy themselves, and about attracting incredible players who are going to hopefully win for the city.
Roberts, B. (2026, September 8). Sixers owner, Comcast CEO promise world-class arena that matches the passion of Philadelphia [Interview transcript]. CBS Philadelphia. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1331868/
MLA
Brian Roberts. "Sixers owner, Comcast CEO promise world-class arena that matches the passion of Philadelphia." CBS Philadelphia, 8 Sep. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1331868/.
BibTeX
@misc{roberts2026_1331868,
author = {Brian Roberts},
title = {Sixers owner, Comcast CEO promise world-class arena that matches the passion of Philadelphia},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, CBS Philadelphia. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {sep},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1331868/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
