Why the Phantoms were sold

The plucky Phantoms minor-league hockey team had trouble earning profits in recent years as attendance dipped, and the franchise faced other economic issues.

The team needed a new ice arena, which would cost $60 million to $80 million.

Meanwhile, the team hadn't found a critical mass of cable viewership because the franchise competed with the popular Flyers in the local television market, a sports media executive close to the situation said.

The most pressing problem was the fact that the Phantoms' home, the famed Wachovia Spectrum, is expected to be torn down for a development of stores, clubs and hotels in 2010.

Peter Luukko, president of Comcast-Spectacor, said yesterday a new ice arena would need public assistance and "there wasn't a local municipality prepared to spend that kind of money and we did not politic for it."

The Phantoms' attendance slipped somewhat in recent years and a modest profit had become a small loss, Luukko said.

Comcast-Spectacor announced last week that it had reached the agreement to sell the Phantoms franchise to the Brooks Group of Pittsburgh. It is not known where the team will move.

Comcast-Spectacor, which owns the Flyers and 76ers, brought the Phantoms to Philadelphia in 1996, when the Flyers' and Sixers' new arena opened in South Philadelphia. The minor-league team put the Spectrum to use for about 40 nights a year. Other events in the Spectrum included the circus, concerts, college basketball and Kixx soccer.

With an average ticket price of about $11, the Phantoms offered hockey fans a cheap alternative to the Flyers. Luukko said he was pleased with the Phantoms and he probably would have kept the team going for a few years in Philadelphia if it weren't for the Spectrum redevelopment.

The Phantoms' sale is no reflection of Comcast's commitment to sports teams, Luukko said.

Cable giant Comcast Corp. owns 75 percent of Comcast-Spectacor, and one of its key motivations for the investment is to control rights to Sixers and Flyers games.

Comcast SportsNet showed just two or three Phantoms games a year. The cost to produce a professional sports game for television is $25,000 to $30,000, and the Phantoms did not generate the audience to recoup those costs through advertising, the sports-media executive said.