Spectrum will also fade away

Another big-city sports venue is destined for the scrap heap: the Spectrum in Philadelphia.

The 41-year-old building will be demolished next year to make way for an entertainment complex, said owner Comcast-Spectacor.

The city’s 76ers basketball team and Flyers hockey team played at the Spectrum for nearly three decades, until 1996, when they moved to the Wachovia Center.

A minor league hockey team and an indoor soccer team currently use the Spectrum. The facility will close after their 2008-09 seasons.

“It’s something we’ve been reluctant to do, but at this point, I think the building has seen its best days,” Comcast-Spectacor Chairman Ed Snider said.

Trivia time

The Flyers were the only major Philadelphia team to clinch a title in the Spectrum. What year was that?

Foul language

Speaking of Philadelphia, the Phillies’ Chase Utley made some noise at the All-Star game’s home run derby -- and not just with his bat.

As he was introduced at Yankee Stadium, Utley drew some boos, presumably from Mets fans. An ESPN microphone then caught Utley responding with an expletive, a moment quickly uploaded to YouTube.com for the world to see -- and hear.

The second baseman, the National League’s top vote-getter, later apologized for “a poor choice of words.”

Some fans weren’t happy. On the Philadelphia sports website The700level, one reader said, “I love Utley, but that is low class. How many kids had to watch that?”

But others took the opposite view. Said one: “Chase Utley, that officially made you my most favorite person in the world.”

Derby discount

Milwaukee fans had more than a rooting interest in the effort by the Brewers’ Ryan Braun at the home run derby.

For every home run hit by the outfielder, the Brewers offered $1 off the price of certain outfield seats for the team’s Aug. 11 game against Washington at Miller Park.

Braun hit 14 homers before being eliminated in the second round, so the $26 seats sold for $12.

Olympic occupancy

Spectators attending the Summer Olympics in China shouldn’t have a problem finding a hotel room.

Only 45.5% of Beijing’s four-star hotel rooms have been booked for the Aug. 8-24 Games, Xiong Yuemi, deputy director of the Beijing Tourism Bureau, told the Associated Press.

Bookings for hotels with ratings of three stars or less also are under 50%, she said. But Xiong said the figures were “within our expectations.”

Negative publicity has swirled around China in advance of the Olympics, including concerns about Beijing’s air pollution and possible protests in support of Tibet’s independence from the Communist government.

Even so, about 500,000 foreigners are expected to attend the games, and “there are still many domestic ticket holders who haven’t booked hotels yet,” Xiong said.

Give and take

Ohio State’s football program this season will offer game tickets to alumni via a lottery system. Not surprisingly, alumni who in the past were allotted tickets based on previous years’ purchases aren’t happy.

But the alumni association said the lottery system would promote more fairness, the AP reported, and came after the association drew hundreds of complaints last year about the availability -- or lack thereof -- of Buckeyes tickets.

Trivia answer

1974, when the Flyers won the Stanley Cup with a 1-0 win over Boston.

And finally

After 11-year-old Hanks Massey made a hole in one at the par-three third hole of the TPC Sawgrass Players Stadium Course in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., his younger brother, Davis, 9, promptly aced the hole as well, his ball falling into the cup on top of his brother’s, the Florida Times-Union reported.

The odds of that happening, according to a math expert cited by the newspaper, are 17 million to one.

--

james.peltz@latimes.com