76ers Fieldhouse in Wilmington under construction but won't be ready for G League season

WILMINGTON -- Dignitaries in hardhats took ceremonial digs into improvised earth on Wednesday afternoon in ground-breaking ceremonies for the 76ers Fieldhouse.

Behind them, the sound of construction machinery whirred as the reddish steel skeleton of the five-story facility already stood against a threatening sky.

“It looks like a topping off ceremony to me,” joked Gov. John Carney.

There is still considerable work to be done, however.

As a result, the 76ers Fieldhouse, new home of the NBA Gatorade League’s Delaware Blue Coats (formerly the 87ers), will not be ready for the start of the G League season later this year, officials said.

“The goal is to get them in here by the end of December. Mid-December is our target,” said Rob Buccini, co-president of the Buccini/Pollin Group, which is constructing the facility in a joint ownership venture with the Philadelphia 76ers.

To accomplish that, workers will have to run a construction version of a fast break. Building design and land acquisition took longer than expected, Buccini added.

“We are working 10, 12 hours a day,” Buccini said. “One of the reasons we had the ground-breaking with the steel partially erected is because we’re moving so quickly. We think we can do it and we’ve got the team. A lot of guys won’t be sleeping a lot over the next several months but, fortunately, they’re very young.”

As a result, the Blue Coats will play a majority of their early games on the road, with a small number of home games likely being played at the Wells Fargo Center, the 76ers’ home court in Philadelphia, and the University of Delaware, said Chris Heck, the 76ers president of business operations.

The G League is the NBA’s developmental league, with players sometimes moving up and down between the rosters of NBA teams and their G League affiliates.

The G League has not announced the schedule for its 18th season in 2018-19. Last season’s first games were played Nov. 3. League president Malcolm Turner, who was on hand Wednesday, said the 2018-19 season will start around the same time.

Last year, the 87ers played 20 of their 50 games in November and December, including nine at home. The 87ers had played at the University of Delaware’s 5,000-seat Bob Carpenter Center since their 2013-14 inception.

 “We’re gonna backload the schedule that starts really heavy in January, February, March,” said Heck of playing inside the 76ers Fieldhouse.

Plans for the facility were announced last November. It’s located where South Market Street (U.S. Route 13) and Garasches Lane intersect. Buccini said then it would be an economic boon to Wilmington.

At the time, plans were for the five-story facility to cover 140,000 square feet and cost about $26 million. Buccini said it has grown to 161,000 square feet with the cost closer to $30 million.

The facility’s main basketball arena will seat 2,500 and be the home of the Blue Coats.

But it’s a multi-purpose recreational center that will also a feature two full-size artificial turf soccer fields – one indoor and one outdoor – that could also be used by teams in other outdoor sports such as football, field hockey and lacrosse, plus two additional full-size basketball courts. The outdoor soccer field is also a recent addition, said Buccini, who is in the ownership group of Major League Soccer’s Philadelphia Union.

The center will also contain the Nemours sports medicine clinic, Titus Sports Academy performance training center and retail and office space.

“This will be the class of the league,” Heck, a Wilmington resident, said of the 76ers Fieldhouse. “We’re trying to also elevate the expectations of youth athletics, meaning, if we give kids in Wilmington or in Delaware an opportunity to play in somewhere that’s magnificent, then they will grow and aspire and strive to play here.”

The main arena also has potential use as a site for Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association state tournament basketball games.

The Blue Coats have already begun selling tickets to games inside the 76ers Fieldhouse, with single-game prices ranging from $9 to $89 per seat.

Last year the 87ers’ 16-34 record equaled the league’s worst. The team averaged 1,800 fans for its 25 home games.

 “A lot of our G League teams will have one or two games at the NBA building,” Turner said, mentioning how the Raptors 905 team set the G League’s attendance record when it played a game on Toronto’s home court. “Our G League teams have used it to provide a sense of connection to the NBA parent club and the NBA building and that fan base as well.”

Contact Kevin Tresolini at ktresolini@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @kevintresolini.

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