The Sports ComplexSpecial Services District is a 501 non-profit organization in Philadelphia that was established in the year 2002 to minimize the impact of concentrating major sporting and entertainment facilities in a geographic area adjacent to established Philadelphia residential neighborhoods of South Philadelphia. The mission is to protect community interests, improve neighborhood quality of life and promote efficient operation within the neighborhood of adjacent sports venues of the Citizen's Ball Park, Lincoln Financial Field, multi-event Wachovia Center and the former Spectrum Arena. The mission is fulfilled by providing support and special services to the residential neighborhood in close proximity to the South Philadelphia Sports Complex. Primary areas of supportive improvements include attention to traffic calming, directional signage, and orderly traffic patterns and flows, removal of an abundance of excess curbside street and sidewalk trash and debris with dedicated cleaning teams, street tree care for over a thousand trees, landscape beautification of several public medial areas and walkways, recreational facility upgrades, upgrades to street lighting and traffic light enhancements, public safety initiatives, conducts special community events, attends public and civil meetings, circulates a calendar and newsletters, and provides announcements of high traffic events scheduled at the Complex so neighbors can plan family events and travel with knowledge of conditions in advance. The boundary of the Special District is bounded by Oregon Avenue to the north, 7th Street to the east, I-95 to the south, and 20th Street to the west. It includes the neighborhoods of Packer Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania M.A.R.C.O Marconi Plaza, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that are represented on the board by four neighborhood districts.
Other Venues
The Special District does not include the "Xfinity Live!" dining entertainment built on the former site of the Spectrum Arena. The impact of traffic and patrons have raised concerns by the adjacent neighborhood community and the parkland of FDR Park seeking to have a mechanism to deal with it in an organized structure, similar to the SCSSD.
