76ers: Philly City Officials Decline to use Wells Fargo Center for Voting

Last week, as remaining NBA teams down in Orlando formed a protest following the shooting of Jacob Blake, the NBA and NBPA wanted to come up with a league-wide plan moving forward. After multiple meetings among players, coaches, the Board of Governors, and the league took place, the NBA and NBPA agreed to move forward with three critical plans in place.

First, the NBA and its players have agreed to establish a social justice coalition immediately. The coalition will be focused on a broad range of issues, including increasing access to voting, promoting civic engagement, and advocating for meaningful police and criminal justice reform.

Secondly, the league will work with the players and network partners to create and include advertising spots in each NBA playoff game dedicated to promoting greater civic engagement in national and local elections and raising awareness around voter access and opportunity.

And lastly, in every city where a league franchise owns and controls the arena property, team governors will continue to work with local elections officials to convert facilities into a voting location for the 2020 general election to allow for a safe in-person voting option for communities vulnerable to COVID.

Since the Sixers lease the Wells Fargo Center, they had to reach out to the arena's owner, Comcast Spectator, to try and work out a plan. On Tuesday morning, Comcast Spectator announced that they had offered the use of the arena to the City of Philadelphia for election activities related to the general election to be held in November of 2020.

Unfortunately, the City of Philadelphia has declined the offer. According to a report from CBS3, Philadelphia's Office of City Commissioners is "politely" refusing to use two of the city's sports teams stadiums as voting poll locations." In the report, CBS3 staff mentions that the city has already identified more convenient locations for voters of those divisions near the arena.

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on Twitter: @JGrasso_