Muldoon, who for 25 years was head of the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau - and relentlessly advocated construction of the sprawling Convention Center to its completion - spoke between visits to Philadelphia banks and corporate leaders that he is hoping to line up as marketing sponsors to raise $250,000 for an expanded Big Five program next year.
Big Five games were long scheduled as doubleheaders, attracting masses of fans. Comcast-Spectacor, which owns the Wells Fargo Center, "would like to do that again," Muldoon says.
The board leading Muldoon's effort includes Phillies boss David Montgomery, representing Penn; Citizens Bank CEO Dan Fitzpatrick, a La Salle alum; David Resnick, a donor for the sports program at Temple; Villanova donor Bob Melchionni; and investor John J. Griffin, a St. Joe's booster. Others prominent in sports and business are involved as well.
Why not a fat TV contract? Muldoon has been talking to ABC-TV, whose senior executives include "a lot of people from Philly," according to Muldoon, and to NBC-TV, owned by Philadelphia-based Comcast Corp.
Muldoon is meeting next week with the New York colleges at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Still building
One of the few construction cranes now poking above Philadelphia is lifting steel and concrete at 4109 Walnut St., where Campus Apartments, which manages 32,000 student "beds" in private housing near colleges across the United States, has put contractor L.F. Driscoll to work building the landlord's first hotel, a 136-room Homewood Suites, to be run by Philadelphia-based Hersha Hospitality Management.
