Two of the heavy hitters along Chester’s waterfront are encountering some turbulence.
It’s not exactly a secret that the city is always pointing to Harrah’s Chester (oops, Philadelphia, more on that in a second) and PPL Park, home of the Philadelphia Union, whenever they point to the economic turnaround in the city.
Now it turns out the city is going to ask for something else – more money.
The city is considering ordinances that will slap some pretty significant fees on their two big-time waterfront attractions. You can read the full story here.
The ordinances would put a 10 percent tax on tickets sold for events at PPL Park and another 20 percent on parking.
Harrah’s also would take a hit, since the amusement tax would apply to many shows held at the casino, including concerts such as the Lynyrd Skynyrd concert this weekend that kicked off the casino’s efforts to rebrand itself as an entertainment destination.
It also comes as more than a few city residents are still nursing some sore feelings over the fact that the casino has dropped the city from its official name. What was always referred to as Harrah’s Chester Casino & Racetrack is now officially Harrah’s Philadelphia.
And the Philadelphia Union, the Major League Soccer team that plays its games at PPL Park, ticked off a few city residents who blamed them for pressuring the city to move the annual Mother’s Day Parade from Sunday to Saturday so as not to conflict with yesterday’s game with the New York Red Bull.
As you might imagine, Union officials are not exactly thrilled at the prospect of losing this kind of revenue.
“These taxes would effectively put us out of business over time,” said Union CEO Nick Sakiewicz.
Stay tuned. This one could get ugly.
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