A New Era of Orange began in the 2023-24 season, which was the Philadelphia Flyers’ marketing slogan for their first season under the leadership of general manager Daniel Brière and president of hockey operations Keith Jones. However, a new era began off the ice last week when the team tore down a banner rather than raise one, specifically changing Wells Fargo Center to the newly named Xfinity Mobile Arena.
Corporate sponsors hold the naming rights for nearly every major sporting venue, with only a handful of outliers holding onto the past, like the Green Bay Packers’ Lambeau Field, or the New York Yankees’ Yankee Stadium. The Flyers have split their history almost evenly between two homes: The Spectrum (1967-1996) and their current, newly named venue.
While younger fans may have a tough time dropping Wells Fargo Center from their muscle memory, this isn’t the first rodeo for old-timers. In fact, the building has had four names in its history, each one home to different players, teams, and memories from the last 30 years of Flyers hockey. If you’ve ever wondered which era reigns supreme, however, you’re in the right place.
CoreStates Center (1996-1998)
Regular Season Record: 87-53-24 (.604 Points Percentage); Playoff Record: 13-11, 3-2 in Series
The throughline of names for the Flyers’ current arena is the financial industry. CoreStates purchased the naming rights for 21 years at $40 million, which would’ve carried it through 2017. Ultimately, several bank mergers led to the different names of the building, while the Philadelphia Eagles and the Phillies have maintained the same corporate sponsor since moving into their new locations from Veterans Stadium in the early 2000s.
It’s hard to ask for a better start to a new venue than this one. The building opened by hosting the 1996 World Cup of Hockey, with each of its two elimination games (a Canada-Sweden semi-final and Game 1 of the best-of-three Canada-United States Final) going past regulation. The US won the first-ever game in the building, a 5-3 round-robin victory over Canada. Despite losing that Final opener, the States went up to Montréal and won Games 2 and 3 to secure a landmark victory in best-on-best international play.
Meanwhile, the focal point of the arena has always been the Flyers, and they got off to a fantastic start in their inaugural season at CoreStates Center. Led by the Legion of Doom, the Flyers reached their first Stanley Cup…
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