Philadelphia Phillies managing partner and principal owner John Middleton and Comcast Spectacor CEO and Philadelphia Flyers Governor Dan Hilferty joined Glen Macnow and Mike Sielski on SportsRadio 94WIP.
Middleton was asked about the Phillies' "win now" window, incredible opportunity to win the World Series this year, and how president Dave Dombrowski will operate at this year's trade deadline in terms of his willingness to trade some of the organization's top tier prospects.
"I know we're built to win now, as you say, but we're also built to win three years from now or five years from now," Middleton explained. "With players like [Justin] Crawford and [Aidan] Miller coming and [Andrew] Painter coming back, I mean these are guys who are going to be 22, 23 years old in a couple of years and they should be playing at a very high level. That extends the window substantially. It's very different from, say, I think both the '93 team and the '83 team that had older players who were frankly at the end of their careers and we didn't really have the farm system in either case to prolong the run. Again, would Dave trade one of those players? I think it depends upon what he would get back. The players you cited are really, really good players. And you've had to get somebody really good and for awhile."
Middleton and Hilferty spoke at length about the recently announced partnership between the Phillies and Comcast Spectacor on the development plans of the South Philadelphia sports complex and how that compares to the plans of the Philadelphia 76ers, who are looking to build a new arena called 76 place in the Market East section of Center City Philadelphia.
"The key thing here is that we truly believe the four teams in a sports district that is focused on from a state, local, government where people can come to one place where there is professional sports entertainment, we think it is a no brainer," Hilferty said. "But we have respect for [the Sixers' ownership] and echoing what John said, completely believe that the Sixers have a right. This is a good thing for Philadelphia."
Middleton admits he hopes the Philadelphia 76ers stay in South Philadelphia.
"The sports complex in Philadelphia is unique," Middleton said. "It's the only place in the United States where four teams are together, inside the city limits. Look, I think it's a really strong economic generator for Philadelphia. We bring, collectively, seven million people a year down to the sports complex and the idea behind the complex development is to take that environment and make it even more desirable...My personal belief is that four of us is better than three of us, but it is their decision. But I hope the Sixers stay. I mean it's partly an emotional decision for me, they've been there decades. That's most of my life and all of my adult life they've been there and I like them there. They've been great neighbors. I really like the people who are involved there with the Sixers."
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