The latest unofficial info on where the Phantoms will go: Bellmawr

During the September PPPC Meeting, then-COO Frank Miceli was our guest speaker and told the Phan Club that there were six sites in southern NJ that Comcast-Spectacor was looking at, as potential places where the Phantoms could play if an arena was built (by some other developer -- Comcast-Spectacor has stated outright that they won't build one themselves).

Perhaps this article is about one of those six sites. Frank couldn't tell us more than "there are six sites", as the process of investigation was nowhere near far enough along for details to be made public.

In any event, CLICK HERE for a blog post about a potential site in Bellmawr, NJ, near the I-42/I-295 interchange.

Spectrum Arena and Bass Pro Shop in Bellmawr, NJ - Update

December 06, 2008 • 5:46 pm

By Adam Monacelli

The site for the proposed Bellmawr waterfront arena project is near the Route 42-Interstate 295 interchange.

By ADAM SMELTZ • Courier-Post Staff

A Bellmawr developer has proposed that an arena to replace the Wachovia Spectrum could take shape in the borough, near the Route 42-Interstate 295 interchange, Mayor Frank Filipek said Friday.

The firm, Develcom, has already undertaken a multi-year commercial development project at the property, which borders the southwest edge of the interchange. New revisions to those plans, posted on the project Web site at www.bellmawrwaterfront.com, suggest a major arena could be incorporated there just east of Big Timber Creek.

Other elements in the published plans include hotels, retail space and a large cinema, all outlined by Develcom.

Filipek said the development firm made its new-arena pitch to the Spectrum’s owner, Comcast-Spectacor, which plans to tear down the South Philadelphia landmark next year.

A meeting to gauge Comcast-Spectacor’s interest should happen sometime in the coming weeks, Filipek said. He said he and representatives from Develcom and Comcast-Spectacor are expected to attend.

“It’s a great proposal,” Filipek said.” . . . I’ve heard they’re very interested in Bellmawr.”

He said he has “really never thought about” what the project could mean for the borough.

“I’m not going to think about it until it comes to reality,” Filipek said. “. . . Until (Comcast-Spectacor) says they’re definitely coming — then I will say what it means for Bellmawr.”

Under an agreement with the Camden County Improvement Authority, Develcom cannot speak with reporters about the matter and must refer inquiries to the authority, said company President Charles Gollub.

Authority Executive Director Frederic Weinstein declined to comment Friday.

“If or when the appropriate time comes, we’re happy to share any and all information with the press and the community,” Gollub said.

Comcast-Spectacor, based in Philadelphia, announced in July that it will demolish the 41-year-old arena, a popular concert venue and home to the Philadelphia Phantoms hockey team.

Since the announcement, Comcast-Spectacor executives have said they need to find a new venue to host the Phantoms. Chairman Ed Snider has said such an arena should seat at least 7,000 fans in order to accommodate the American Hockey League team.

But to attract concerts, an arena’s total capacity would need to be more than that, Snider has said.

Comcast-Spectacor did not comment Friday specifically on the Bellmawr prospect. In a prepared statement sent to the Courier-Post, company President Peter Luukko said the group is in talks with multiple groups about relocating the Phantoms.

The company “is not building a new arena,” Luukko said. “However, if someone is building a new arena, we would like to talk to them about potentially moving the Phantoms there.”

He said the company has held “very preliminary discussions about sites in South Jersey. At this time, there is nothing definitive.”

In September, Cherry Hill Township spokesman Dan Keashen said his municipality was “cautiously excited to be considered a prospective location.” In August, Luukko said Atlantic City and the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania also were among the possibilities.

Reached Friday, county Freeholder-Director Louis Cappelli Jr. said he understands Comcast-Spectacor reviewed several Camden County sites, including ones in Bellmawr, Cherry Hill and Winslow.

He said such a new venue would be an asset for the area.

“We don’t really have a facility that can accommodate several thousand people in Camden County or the region,” Cappelli said. He said the addition could help attract conferences and other major events.

Real-estate executive Eliott Fuhrman, once involved in the Garden State Park development talks in Cherry Hill, said a new arena would probably require a partnership of public and private entities.

“It really has to be a public-private partnership,” said Fuhrman, general partner in Maryland-based Glencoe and Associates. “Financially, a convention center or a stadium cannot be self-sustaining, especially in today’s economy, because there’s no access for funding. It has to be public-private.”

Fuhrman also said a new arena would probably be a better fit in Pennsauken — at the old Pennsauken Mart site — than it would be in Bellmawr. He said the Pennsauken site would plant the arena closer to Philadelphia and its hockey fans, and offer more opportunities for additional redevelopment surrounding the arena.

“Let’s face it: You go right down Haddonfield Road (from Pennsauken), and you’re at the Cherry Hill Mall,” Fuhrman said. “People could go to dinner before or after” events.

Phantoms vs. Hershey, 11-14-08: First Period

Well, that's ONE way to be apprised of a callup. The Phantoms Phan Club has its monthly Secret Phan gift collection in the reception area by the Will Call window. I was dropping off a gift bag, and I had to navigate around a large bag of hockey gear and a bundle of hockey sticks to get in the door.

I thought little of it until I got a better look at the bag. It had Jared Ross's FLYERS number on it, as well as clearly being marked with Flyers logos. In short, it looked pretty darn official.

And it is. Ross is called up to the Flyers. Looks like the Bears get off easy tonight, since one of our best offensive weapons is off the roster.

Our scratches are Ross, Bellamy, and Hersley.

Our starting lineup is Munroe, Bartulis, Curry, Raduns, Clackson,and Kalinski. I can't help but notice the vote of confidence being given to our rookie line, with this selection. :)

Chase Trull, whom we just called up from Mississippi, is wearing number 22.

Two seconds into the game, Clackson immediately squared off with Amadio. It was an active fight, not a hug-fest, and Clackson got the takedown. Way to set the tone for the weekend early, Matt. :)

Another line combo is out: Kane, Giroux, and Szwez.

Drat. With 17:56 left in the period, Hershey scored. It was a rising shot that went in as Scott was headed down into a butterfly, and it found daylight. Hershey has 3 shots on goal, we haven't got any.

Next line combo: Matsumoto, Klotz, and Maroon.

Even-strength D pairs: Curry/Bartulis, DeSantis/Ratchuk, Syvret/Guenin.

Logically, the last remaining line should be Laliberte, Trull, and Beaulieu, as they are our remaining three forwards. However, it's Laliberte, Trull, and Matsumoto on the ice at the moment. I believe Beaulieu is dressed for the first time this season. That is, unless he saw ice time during our road games over the weekend, but I honestly don't think he was in the lineup at that time. Meanwhile Matsumoto is seeing double duty on this line at the moment as well as his own (with Klotz and Maroon).

13:58 left: we have five rookies out at once -- Raduns, Maroon, Kalinski, Ratchuk, and DeSantis.

12:50 It must be fun for the play-by-play guys right about now; both teams' Girouxs are out at the same time. BTW, the Bears have 5 SOG right now, and we have 1.

Laliberte tried unsuccessfully to split two defenders in Hershey's slot. We need to have a word with the young guys about flying solo during these high-risk plays. It's a habit that we really need to discourage.

Oh, what a scoring chance,! We had Matsumoto in the Hershey crease battling for a loose puck. Unfortunately, it squeaked out behind him (with some help from the goalie), and a Bears defenseman took it out of harm's way.

Moments later, SCORE -- Kane from Giroux to tie the score at 1-1. Somehow, this was only our third SOG... That doesn't seem right; I thought we had more than that, but what the hey. As long as one of our shots went IN, that's what matters.

Clackson is about to go off for interference. The Philly fans respectfully disagree. ;)

PK unit: Raduns, Kalinski, Guenin, Syvret. Again, we have rookies being handed a lot of responsibility. So far on this PK, our guys are letting Munroe see the puck clearly, and the Bears' shots have come from out by the point and the blue line. Next PK unit: Kane, Giroux, Syvret, Guenin. Then Raduns, Kalinski, Curry, Bartulis. I would love to see us clear the darn thing out. Oddly enough, all the players from both teams have drifted to the half of the ice on Munroe's right. Whoa, Scotty just stopped a bouncing puck that looked like the animated dot from a karaoke song.

Guenin blocks a shot after laying flat-out on the ice. I swear, if he doesn't lead the league in blocked shots, I'd like to know who's ahead of him and how many aspirin said shot-blocking leader takes in a day Guenin is freakng fearless when it comes to getting in front of a puck.

We successfully killed the penalty, even though we basically spent the entire two minutes in our end.

Laliberte just BURIED the Bears #23. There must be a dent in the boards where he made contact. NICE hit.

Clackson made a nice head's-up move, making sure he was on the Bears side of the red line before dumping the puck deep into the Hershey zone at the end of a shift.

With three minutes left, we have 4 SOG and the Bears have 12.

Maroon had a nice breakout with Matsumoto, but he couldn't get the puck over to him. The Hershey defender was in position to prevent the pass. It was a good try, though, and it's what we want to see our guys do more of. Speaking of breaking out, don't look now but our three rookie forwards are on a three-on-two charging into the Bears end, with a minute remaining in the period. Unfortunately, *NO*-body was anywhere near the rebound, and a Bear eventually got to the biscuit first. I'm a little surprised at this goalie Varlamov -- that was an immense rebound right into the slot. That's not something I'd expect from him.

SOG at the end of the first period: Phantoms: 8, Hershey:12.

Phantoms Weekly Release #5

Here is the link to the current Phantoms Weekly Release.

There is still no game recap on the Phantoms site from Sunday's game. This is going to make the Scrapbook Committee's lives interesting, to say the least, as they email us members recaps of every game, edited into a scrapbook-friendly format that we can print out.

John Paddock was the Guest Speaker at the Phan Club meeting

Last night, we had coach John Paddock as our guest speaker at the Phantoms Phan Club meeting. We've got a few banged-up forwards, so our original plan to send down another one or two players by the weekend might be delayed. It depends on whether we get Ross back from the Flyers, and whether any of the the dented guys (Szwez, Kalinsky, Maroon) are good to go by then. Powe also got hurt on Saturday night.

I'm not sure how injured is "injured" for any of these guys. I hope that it's nothing major and they are back in the lineup soon. But suddenly, that surplus of guys sitting in the press box could be converted to a group of guys getting some time in the Phantoms lineup.

Oh, and it was interesting to hear the perspective of the man who was the Other Team's Coach during the infamous Phantoms/Senators brawl game. You know, the one that featured the Goalie High-Jump competition. This is what happens when you have two teams with a lot of personality, not to mention some colorful personalities and a strong competitive spirit. Someone asked him if he jokes with Neil Little about the game, as they now work together on the coaching staff. He laughed and said, "Well, maybe the first time, since he's got a big picture of it in his office". (LOL!!! ) But now they talk about hockey, goaltending, and golf.

We also had the opportunity to congratulate Mike Thornton on his promotion. The changes to his responsibilities mean that it's unlikely he'll continue as our play-by-play announcer. He actually received resumes in his email from people interested in the job, which is pretty impressive to me considering that the announcement was only made yesterday afternoon. But he said he was going to talk, today, to the person who called some games for us last season, as well as being the one who'll be stepping up to fill his old position. I'll just leave it at that, since it won't be long until official announcements come out on that score. We have a home game on Friday, so we have no choice but to get our administrative tails in gear by then.

So I'll close by saying that I hope our dented guys are back in good shape in no time. I also hope that our guys who need playing time are able to either get it here, or if they're assigned to Mississippi then I hope they tear it up in Biloxi. Do us proud, guys!

Phantoms Phan Club's "Meet and Greet"

Note: I edited the October 10 post to include a full game recap. If you haven't seen the updated version of that post, please do check it out.

The Phan Club -- actually, "Philadelphia Phantoms Phan Club", or PPPC for short -- had our Meet and Greet with the team this afternoon. For the past several years, we've had bowling parties where players from the team sit at lanes with fans and we bowl.

Well, I don't always bowl -- I discovered the hard way a few years ago that if I interpret (sign language) in the morning and bowl that same afternoon, the strength in my hands, which is limited on a good day thanks to carpal tunnel syndrome issues, generally gives out after about five or six frames. Then embarrassing things happen like, oh, dropping the bowling ball because my fingers literally can't hold onto it anymore. Yikes... so if the Meet and Greet is scheduled on the same day as I interpret, I don't bowl. And as for today, well -- even if I hadn't interpreted this morning, which I did, I'm still walking with a cane post-surgery and my knee's not recovered enough for me to entertain thoughts of bowling.

In any case, I did attend the event, and I had a nice time even without bowling. Sean Curry and Tim Ramholt, both of whom are new to the team this year, were at our lane. They're really nice guys. They, the other two fans at the lane, and I wound up discussing bowling (oddly enough, ;) ). Ramholt said that he was used to ten-pin bowling. That's not something I've seen before, so I asked him what the difference is. He said that the ball is smaller and between shots of the frame, they don't clear the fallen pins away. In other words, if you're trying to make a spare, not only do you have to hit the remaining pins, but you have to do so with the pins you already knocked down all lying there. Very interesting. Now I'm going to have to look this up on Google and see if there's anywhere around here to try this kind of bowling.

Or I might have to make a pilgrimage to Canada to find it. Imagine that encounter with their border guards at the airport.

"Reason for entering the country?"

"There's this game called ten-pin bowling that I'd like to try, and I can't find it at home." Think the border patrol will buy that? :)

ANYway... one thing that was disappointing to find out today was that Powe got hurt last night. I don't think there are concrete answers yet regarding just HOW hurt is "hurt", and if there are, nobody's saying. So I'll hope for the best, and say a prayer that he's not too badly dented and will be back in the lineup soon.

That's all for now!