Philadelphia resident — and retired Eagles center — Jason Kelce is not on board with the prospective plans to move the 76ers basketball team.
“To be clear, I would absolutely support the Sixers building their own arena in South Philadelphia. The renting thing isn’t fair to them,” Kelce, 36, wrote via X on Thursday, September 19. “I just hate the strong-arming of the city to force an inevitable move into an area that the local residents, and vast majority of Philadelphians don’t prefer be in center city.”
He continued, “It just pisses me off now, with the way it’s happening, and I’m gonna be pissed for the foreseeable future at how this is being forced currently. The threat of moving the team is bulls—, I hate it.”
New Jersey officials recently expressed interest in relocating the 76ers from Philadelphia to Camden, New Jersey, where the team already has a practice facility. The 76ers currently lease Philly’s Wells Fargo Center, and the agreement ends in 2031. The team is also looking into building a new arena in town.
“At the end of the day, we will all love it in 5-10 years when we have a beautiful new stadium in the heart of the city,” Kelce added in his social media post. “Admittedly I was scarred growing up in Cleveland by Art Modell and the Browns, which the city of Cleveland messed up on, but it doesn’t change that I have a strong disdain for owners making these threats with zero care for what the fans or residents who support the team want.”
Kelce, who was born and raised in Ohio, moved to Pennsylvania when he was drafted by the Eagles in 2011. He retired earlier this year after 13 seasons.
“Thirteen years in Philadelphia and I look back at a career full of ups and downs,” Kelce said in a March press conference. “It has always been a goal of mine to play my whole career in one city. I couldn’t have dreamt a better one and a better fit if I tried. I don’t know what’s next, but I look forward to the new challenges and opportunities that await, and I know that I carry with me the lessons for my time here and that forever we shall all share the bond of being Philadelphians.”
According to Kelce, it was “poetic” that he played his entire NFL career in the “city of brotherly love.”
“I knew that relationship all too well,” Jason said, referring to younger brother Travis Kelce.
Travis, 34, followed in Jason’s athletic footsteps and is a tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs, even wearing No. 87 on his jersey as a nod to Jason’s birth year.
