The Philadelphia Union ran the first ever boat cruise from Penn’s Landing to Subaru Park and we should all hope it happens more often
Union fans and influencers were down at Penn’s Landing yesterday boarding the Rendezvous for the first ever Philadelphia Union cruise from Center City down the Delaware to Subaru Park in Chester, and I cannot believe it took this long for someone in this city to figure out that we have a massive river connecting Philadelphia to Delco and nobody has been using it.
Shoutout Delco. Shoutout whoever in the Union front office pitched this and got it approved, because the concept is so obvious in hindsight that the only real question is why it hasn’t been happening every home match since Subaru Park opened.
The only public ferry service I can ever remember in this city was the one that ran over to the Tweeter Center or whatever they’re calling it these days, and I’m not even sure that still operates. Beyond that we’ve had a working waterfront sitting right there for 300 years while everyone in the region sits in traffic on I-95 trying to get to the exact same places the river already connects.
Philadelphia Union Delaware River Boat Shuttle
The Delaware River Has Been Wasted for Centuries
The Delaware River hasn’t been used properly by the city of Philadelphia since the day this place was founded, and the Schuylkill is in the same boat, no pun intended.
Meanwhile I-95 is a parking lot at basically any hour you’d want to travel and I-76 is somehow worse despite being shorter. We have two rivers cutting through the entire region, connecting Center City to the airport, the stadiums, Chester, Camden, Manayunk, and Conshohocken, and the collective transportation strategy has been to keep dumping cars onto highways that were designed for a fraction of the volume they carry.
The Great Jimmy King Documented A Lot of It. Check Em Out
Pretty sick right? After watching those videos, there’s absolutely no reason I could think (instead of probably some liability and insurance trash) that the city of Philadelphia shouldn’t open the waterways up and increase boat traffic.
Run regular service on both rivers to everywhere people actually want to go. The Union figured out that fans would rather take a boat to a soccer match than sit on 95 South behind an accident near the airport, and every other organization in this region should be paying attention because the demand is obviously there.
One Small Note…
I couldn’t help myself. Why is it always the same group of “influencers” in every one of these videos? I know most of them and I’m not knocking anybody for getting the content, because if a team is handing out access you take it every time but when it’s literally every team-sponsored video across every franchise featuring the same rotating cast of fans, something has to give at some point, right?
The Boat Idea Is a Slam Dunk
Getting on a boat at Penn’s Landing, cruising down the Delaware with a beer in your hand, and arriving at Subaru Park without touching a highway is the best possible way to get to a Union match. It should be permanent, it should run every home game, and it should expand until there are boats going everywhere along both rivers.
Give us more boats.
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I would 100% do this for a late afternoon game. Spend a day in the city then float to a match not having to worry who’s going to DD, and if it’s a booze cruise to the game then just take my money already. The Union need to lock this down any way possible, even how they currently suck I’ll still go if it means boats and beers.