Will the real Philadelphia Wings please stand up? The name has been used by three different lacrosse teams over thirty years.
The team has gone through several ownership changes, with the current owners having owned a previous incarnation.
The history of this team’s name can be confusing, but I’ll explain it clearly here.
Who Owns The Philadelphia Wings Now?
If you’re not looking for the history of the team and its previous owners, we’ll start by cutting to the chase.
The Philadelphia Wings are a professional lacrosse team owned by Comcast Spectacor.
Spectacor was founded in 1974 by the late Ed Snider to manage the original Philadelphia Wings alongside the Philadelphia Flyers. Comcast purchased a 66% stake in the company to form Comcast Spectacor.
The current lacrosse team was launched in 2017 as an expansion franchise in the National Lacrosse League.
A team of the same name had previously been owned by two different ownership groups. The rest of this article explains that history.
Who Owned The Original Philadelphia Wings?
The original team was founded in the early 1970s. They had shared owners with the Philadelphia Flyers in the NHL.
The primary Wings owner was Ed Snider, who founded the Flyers. Snider’s brother-in-law, Earl Foreman, was an attorney and also a partner in this sports venture.
Before the Wings existed
Snider and Foreman had partnered with Jerry Wolman to build the Spectrum to house the Flyers and the Philadelphia 76ers (NBA).
Wolman also owned the Philadelphia Eagles but got into financial trouble. When his businesses collapsed, he sold his interests in the Flyers and the Wings to Snider and Foreman.
The deal included Wolman getting sole ownership of the Spectrum. However, he had to put the stadium into bankruptcy in 1971.
Snider and Foreman, his former partners, bought the Spectrum outright and paid off the creditors.
Snider then created a holding company called Spectacor to run the stadium and the Flyers.
“W-I-N-G-S WINGS!”
The next step was to form the Philadelphia Wings to bring lacrosse to the stadium. The Wings played their first professional match in the Spectrum in 1974.
This professional league was called the National Lacrosse League. Yes, it shares the name of the modern NLL, but the two leagues weren’t connected. (There’s a theme running through this story).
The first incarnation of the Philadelphia Wings lasted for as long as this professional league. The league ran for two seasons in 1974 and 1975.
The Second Philadelphia Wings
This next incarnation of the Wings was created in 1987 to play in a new professional box league.
The league was called the Eagle Pro Box Lacrosse League. Never heard of it? Remember, changing names is a thing in lacrosse.
This league became the Major Indoor Lacrosse League in 1989 and morphed into the National Lacrosse League in 1998. Yes, that’s the NLL that we know and love today.
The Major Indoor Lacrosse League (MILL) operated under the same business model as the new Premier Lacrosse League. In other words, all the teams were under the same ownership.
The ownership group was led by Chris Fritz and Russ Cline, with each team having another one or two minority owners.
So, we can say that this second Philadelphia Wings was majority owned by Fritz and Cline.
Comcast Spectacor
Ed Snider’s Spectacor remained involved as minority shareholders and the owners of the Wings home stadium.
In 1996, Jeff Snider sold sixty-six percent of his business to Comcast in 1996. Spectacor was renamed as Comcast Spectacor.
In reality, this didn’t have much effect on the operations of the company. Jeff Snider remained as Chairman of the new company.
1998: Russ Cline And Mike French As Co-Owners
Some teams, minority owners, and players got frustrated with the single-ownership model of the MILL.
They created a new separate league called the National Lacrosse League.
When stars like Gary and Paul Gait committed to this new NLL, the two leagues agreed to merge under the new name in 1998. Each of the teams in the NLL had separate ownership groups.
Russ Cline, original co-owner of the MILL, retained ownership stakes in the Philadelphia Wings.
He was joined by Mike French, who had played for the Philadelphia Wings before coaching and managing the team.
In 1998, French took the role of leader of the majority ownership group of the Wings.
French combined his lacrosse interests with a career as a partner in Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC).
2011: Brad Brewster And Ted Goldthorpe as Co-Owners
Brad Brewster and Ted Goldthorpe joined the ownership group in 2011.
We have more about Brad Brewster in our review of ownership of the Albany Firewolves.
Ted Goldthorpe worked in investment banking for Goldman Sachs for years. He is now a partner at BC Partners.
2014: From Wings To Wolves
In 2014, the team was sold and relocated to Connecticut. However, the name wasn’t transferred.
The team became the New England Black Wolves, and ultimately, the Albany Firewolves.
2017: Philadelphia Wings III
Jeff Snider died in 2016. Comcast Spectacor purchased the minority shares he had owned.
The old Spectrum arena no longer existed, but the company had built what is now the Wells Fargo Center to house the Philadelphia Flyers and the 76ers.
The company reached back to its Spectacor roots and decided to get back into lacrosse. They were granted an expansion franchise in the NLL for the 2018/19 seasons.
The new team was named Philadelphia Wings. Their home arena is the Wells Fargo Center.
Most fans of a franchise just want to know that the owners have deep enough pockets to meet the operational costs from year to year.
It’s reasonable to expect that Comcast Spectacor can carry a lacrosse team!
If you’re curious about player wages, check out our article on salaries at the Philadelphia Wings. That gives details of some star players and the general salary tiers based on experience.
If you want to do a deep dive, you can check the tiers against the current Wings roster (the list includes the player’s birth year).
