COMMON SENSE

by Solomon Jones

SEPTA runs advertisements encouraging fans to take the subway to Phillies games. The police send out press releases advising the same.

Just last week Comcast Spectacor--which owns the First Union Center, the First Union Spectrum, the Sixers, and the Flyers and Phantoms hockey teams--sent out an advisory encouraging fans to take alternate routes to last Sunday's Sixers game, which took place while the circus was in town.

None of it seems to work. Multiple events at the South Philly sports complex consistently cause traffic snarls and parking snafus.

In January an Eagles playoff game, Flyers and Phantoms hockey games, and a motocross event were scheduled on the same day.

Fans were encouraged to use public transportation, and more than 22,500 of them took SEPTA to that day's events. But the vast majority of fans chose to drive, resulting in a muted version of the traffic debacle that then-managing director Joseph Martz had hoped to avoid.

The ongoing construction of the new Eagles stadium has made things even worse, says police department spokesman Cpl. Jim Pauley.

"That construction took up parking that would normally be used by the fans," he says. "It might ease up in the future, but right now would be a great time to take public transportation."

There's only one way to guarantee that people will do that, says Jerrildine Reed, special assistant to Congressman Chaka Fattah.

"When they're scheduling a concert at the First Union Center at the same time as the Phillies game, they should find some way to make [public transportation] user friendly," says Reed.

"Free rides to the stadium would encourage people to take the subway to the event."

Reed, an immigration lawyer who gives her age as "Thirty-nine, same as Jack Benny" (because "a woman who will tell her age will tell anything"), says the subway rides could target people who usually drive to sporting events.

"The people who drive, they could show their driver's license to the cashiers and ride for free," says Reed, adding that the free rides could be part of an overall marketing plan for the city.

"They could give out information at the subway stops about other things to do in the city," she says. "It could say something like, 'If this was a pleasant ride, why not come back and try us again?'"

The idea is to entice suburbanites who come into the city for sporting events to do other things in Philadelphia.

"It should be a fun thing," she says. "The 70,000th person who comes through gets a night at a hotel or a free day at the Zoo, something to give the people an incentive to return. Give people tickets to the Art Museum, to the Franklin Institute."

Jeff Guaracino, spokesman for the Greater Philadelphia Tourism and Marketing Corporation, is intrigued by the thought of a marketing tie-in.

"That's a great idea," he says. "Communicating with people in mass transit is one of the things we're looking at doing in the campaign we're getting ready to launch to encourage people living in the region to be tourists in their own town. It's an interesting idea that we'll take a look at."

But according to those who handle such things, the marketing aspect of Reed's idea would be a lot easier to pull off than the free subway rides.

SEPTA's proposed budget includes operating costs of $72.9 million for its subway, elevated and light rail concessions in fiscal year 2003. About half of SEPTA's total budget is funded by passenger fares. The remainder comes from interest, property rental income, advertising revenues and a whopping $433.9 million from government subsidies.

Taxpayer funding makes it impossible for SEPTA to pay for free rides to sporting events, says SEPTA spokesman Richard Maloney, because free rides on SEPTA are prohibited by law.

"I'd love to be able to provide free rides for a number of things," Maloney says. "But we're prohibited by the SEPTA-enabling legislation, passed in the '60s, from providing any free services, the rationale being that half of the cost of all rides are being paid for by taxpayers, and you simply can't give taxpayer services away.

"If the teams or the city paid for it," Maloney adds, "that could be arranged."

The teams aren't anxious to pay for free rides either. Comcast Spectacor owns the parking lots at the First Union Spectrum, the First Union Center and Veteran's Stadium, and contracts a private company to operate those lots.

Paying for free subway rides, says a source familiar with the situation, would cut into the company's parking profits. However, Comcast Spectacor does advise fans to use SEPTA.

"We do encourage fans, through emails, faxes and our broadcasts, to take alternate routes, to take SEPTA down here," says Comcast Spectacor spokesman Ike Richman.

"We do encourage them. But [paying for free rides] is something we'd have to sit and talk about."

Reed says the city and teams should do more than talk about it.

"We call ourselves the city that loves you back," she says. "How about showing the people that we love them back?"

Solomon Jones (sjones@philadelphiaweekly.com) last wrote about Mayor Street's controversial comments at a recent NAACP meeting. This is the second in a series about common-sense solutions to the city's problems.