John Smallwood | State should look at big picture on Chester soccer stadium

NICK SAKIEWICZ understands the perception, and as the point man for the ownership group hoping to bring a Major League Soccer franchise to the Philadelphia region, he won't deny that he needs assistance from the Pennsylvania Legislature to build the 20,000-seat, world-class soccer stadium that will make it happen.

But for anyone who wonders why the state should contribute $45 million to subsidize another professional sports-team owner, much less a potential professional soccer-team owner, Sakiewicz points out that the proposed stadium that would sit at the foot of the Commodore Barry Bridge is about so much more than soccer.

For the City of Chester, the stadium - which is projected to cost about $155 million - is just the linchpin of a $500 million development project that could bring rejuvenation and hope to an area that is one of the poorest in the commonwealth.

"The vision is to build a sports and entertainment campus that will put the City of Chester on the global map, bring hundreds of thousands of visitors annually to the waterfront, and most importantly be the spark that accelerates the building of the $400 million adjacent Buccini/Pollin development," said Sakiewicz, president and CEO of AEG New York, Inc. "It will be the centerpiece of something special that will benefit the entire community for years and years to come."

Take off the sports blinders for a second and digest that. The soccer stadium is the key to getting a $400 million, privately financed residential, retail and commercial office center proposed by the Buccini/Pollin Group.

BPG, a real estate acquisition, development and management company with offices in Wilmington, Del., New York and Washington, is the same company that used Daniel S. Frawley Stadium - home of the Wilmington Blue Rocks - as the spark to transform that city's stagnant waterfront into a residential, entertainment and commercial megaplex.

Sakiewicz said that during the 2-year construction period (2008-10), more than 2,600 jobs in building trades, apprenticeships and internships would be created from the construction industry.

He projected that almost 900 new annual jobs would be created in the retail and commercial sectors.

And there is no telling how many jobs and dollars the entertainment sector would create for Chester and the commonwealth.

That's certainly the way Chester Mayor Wendell N. Butler Jr. views it, as does Delaware County, which in October pledged $30 million to the development project.