It’s ridiculously difficult to start a business in Philadelphia | Opinion

Philadelphia Flyers founder Ed Snider breezed through the government approval process in 1967 when he built the Spectrum for his new sports franchise. He once said all of the legal paperwork fit inside two small binders.


Snider faced much different conditions when he built the Wells Fargo Center on the same lot 30 years later. His partners filled a long conference table with regulatory documents piled so high attorneys barely could see each other over the top.