It’s 11 a.m., and the Bon Jovi fan club members are already starting to camp out in front of the Rocky statue at the Wachovia Spectrum.
But they’re not getting ready to scream as the band performs in front of another sellout crowd at Veterans Stadium. Instead, they’re awaiting a major announcement that Jon Bon Jovi, bandmate Richie Sambora and local businessman Craig A. Spencer are bringing soul to South Philadelphia — as in the Philadelphia Soul, an expansion Arena Football League team.
The squad will begin playing in February with home games at the Wachovia Center and Spectrum. The plans for bringing an AFL team to the city were actually nine months in the making, but the ownership group was waiting for all the pieces to come together.
"There was a lot of homework that went into this for the last nine months," Bon Jovi said during an interview late Tuesday afternoon. "Why I convinced them to use the name Philadelphia Soul is so we could be an independent team, a stand-alone team, so we weren’t another aggressive animal — the Cubs, the Bears, the Lions, the Tigers."
Tuesday’s launch party featured plenty of soul — and other forms of music — as the City Rhythm Orchestra entertained spectators. The main event kicked off just after 5 p.m. as a standing-room-only crowd started screaming for Bon Jovi, Sambora and Sambora’s wife, Heather Locklear. Less glamorous celebrities such as Mayor Street, Gov. Rendell and team president Ron Jaworski were also on hand.
The fan-friendly AFL, which will allow Soul fans to approach players for autographs after games, will begin its 18th season in February, with 19 teams expected to take the field. The games will be broadcast live on NBC from February to May. The Soul still has a lot of work to do, including compiling a roster through next month’s expansion draft, completing trades and free-agent signings, and selling tickets. Most daunting, the organization must get the city pumped up about a football team other than the Eagles.
Jersey native Bon Jovi, an admitted New York Giants fan, said he is perfectly comfortable rooting for a Philadelphia team.
"I have no problem with the Eagles," he said. "I rooted for them last year from Japan watching the NFC playoffs. The only team I really hate in all of football is the Cowboys."
Listings editor Christina Morabito contributed to this story.
