Carchidi: Don’t Forget This Flyers Icon When Wells Fargo Center is Renamed

Lots of guesses have been made about what the Wells Fargo Center will be called at this time next year. The banking giant said it will not renew its naming rights for the Philadelphia Flyers’ (and, for now, the 76ers’) home arena, which will expire next August.

Who will come up with the big bucks?

Expect Wawa Arena to be among the contenders. Ditto the Tastykake Center and Comcast Arena, along with a slew of others.

Whatever it’s called, some say, it should have “Spectrum” at the end of it to pay homage to the former (beloved) home of the Flyers and 76ers. The Spectrum was used during a time when buildings could have cool names and didn’t need sponsors to pay for exorbitant players’ salaries.

So the Wawa Spectrum or the Tastykake Spectrum — or whatever the name — would give the arena a flow of money and pay respect to the past.

In other words, a win-win.

I like the idea because the Spectrum was a magical place, the venerable arena where the Flyers (1975) and 76ers (1983) won their last championships.

That said, I also like another idea — paying respect to Philadelphia Flyers founder Ed Snider, a man who was chairman of the 76ers at one point.

Whoever buys the naming rights, perhaps they can be encouraged to include Snider’s name at the end of the arena’s new moniker?

How about: the Wawa Snider Center? Or the Tastykake Snider Arena?

Give me your thoughts and your suggestions.

Speaking of Snider…

Lauren Hart, the Flyers’ popular anthem singer, was named to the board of the Ed Snider Youth Hockey and Education program last week.

“Lauren and her family have been synonymous with the Flyers and Snider Hockey since Day 1,” said Ike Richman, who was Ed’s publicist back in the day.

Lauren’s father, of course, was the late Gene Hart, the one-time voice of the Flyers and a Hockey Hall of Famer.

Playoff Longshots

Training camp starts in about a month, and the Philadelphia Flyers are a long shot to make the playoffs. FanDuel has them at plus-132 to make the playoffs; they are minus-186 to miss the playoffs.

But that doesn’t mean they won’t be fun to watch.

Seeing Matvei Michkov develop before our eyes was a gift from SKA St. Petersburg — the KHL team released him from his contract — and he will make the Flyers a must-see club this season.

It will also be fun to see how much (relatively) young players like Cam York, Tyson Foerster, Joel Farabee, Owen Tippett, Morgan Frost, and Jamie Drysdale continue to blossom.

Ditto goalies Sam Ersson and Ivan Fedotov. Do the Flyers have their future goalie on the current roster? This season will go a long way in determining that.

Sam Carchidi writes a weekly column for Philly Hockey Now. He and Jeff Hare are working on a TV series on the Flyers’ glory days, tentatively called “Bullies.” Carchidi can be reached at samcarchidi55@gmail.com.