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Wachovia Center going away

The city zoning board will hear the bid for new signs next week.

Thank the banking business in America for yet another change in the name of the sports arena in South Philly on the former site of JFK Stadium.

By the fall, signs bearing the "Wells Fargo" name will hang in place of the Wachovia Center names, as I reported Sunday.

Public notice was released on Friday about a June 23 hearing before the city's zoning hearing board. Approval is seemed to be a lock.

The arena opened in 1996 as the CoreStates Center. In 1999, it became the First Union Center, where it got international attention as the site of the 2000 Republican convention.

In 2003, Wachovia got the naming rights. Wells Fargo subsumed Wachovia in '08. Slowwwly, Wachovia locations are changing their name.

(That's Don MacLean in the 1996 photo at right.)