A week ago Thursday, the 1600 and 1700 blocks of Market Street in Center City were closed to traffic so that the Philadelphia Soul, the Arena Football League team once owned by Jon Bon Jovi, could hold an outdoor practice. Here's a video with a portion of the practice. The speaker is head coach Mike Hohensee. Some photos follow (click on the photos to see full-size versions).
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| Former mayor and former PA governor Ed Rendell |
This wasn't the most intense practice. It was more a publicity stunt to sell tickets. In 2008, the last year of the Soul's existence before the league temporarily shut down, they sold out half of their games and averaged over 16,000 per game. Whether it's due to the two years without a team or the economy or other factors, but their home opener this year drew just 12,000 or so, and attendance dropped to 8,000 for home game 2 and 7,500 for their most recent game on Friday.
