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News

Plus, Philly swingers clubs apparently still exist.

Wawa vs. Sheetz photo-illustration by Jamie Leary

Check phillymag.com each morning Monday through Thursday for the latest edition of Philly Today. And if you have a news tip for our hardworking Philly Mag reporters, please direct it here. You can also use that form to send us reader mail. We love reader mail!

The Battle Between Wawa and Sheetz Heats Up

There has long been a Wawa vs. Sheetz debate in the battle for Pennsylvania-based convenience-store supremacy. For many years, this battle mostly played out in the world of public opinion, because Delco-based Wawa had always been an Eastern Pennsylvania thing, while Altoona-based Sheetz had always been a Central and Western Pennsylvania thing. But times are changing.

Wawa has been slowly encroaching on what was Sheetz’s turf. And now the inventor of the Shorti is upping the ante with more aggressive expansion. Currently, Wawa’s westernmost store is in East Petersburg in Lancaster County, just down the road from one Sheetz and within five miles of five other Sheetz locations. But yesterday, Wawa broke ground on a location in Middletown in Dauphin County. Middletown is about 25 miles west of East Petersburg and decidedly in the middle of Sheetz Country.

And Wawa isn’t stopping there. Wawa says it’s going to have locations in Enola, Hanover, Dover, York and Williamsport coming later this year. Next year? More stores. More counties. All the way out to Union County, which is what one might reasonably refer to as “the sticks.” And what’s right next to Union County? Centre County, a.k.a. Penn State’s home. It’s hard to imagine that Wawa isn’t going to make a play for that college town. I can just see all those Nittany Lions fans scarfing down Wawa meatball parm sandwiches in that huge stadium a few short years from now.

Emma Dooling at the Philadelphia Business Journal has more on this story.

WNBA Talk

Ever since the recent NCAA women’s tournament and the sudden stardom of Caitlin Clark, there’s been lots of talk about the WNBA and lots of outrage over Clark’s new WNBA contract, considering that she’ll be earning about $84,500 a year, which is a pittance compared to what the men of the NBA make. Clark, at least, appears to be killing it in endorsement deals.

And then there’s also this nugget: Philadelphia is one of six cities and regions the WNBA is considering for an expansion team. Our competition? Toronto, Portland, Denver, Nashville and South Florida. Just for some wild speculation: Would Dawn Staley come home to coach?

By the Numbers

$30,000: Amount a 63-year-old man just lost in a robbery outside a swingers club in Northeast Philadelphia. The surprising part about this is that there are still swingers clubs. Well, at least the swingers club in question is across the street from a Walgreens, so you don’t have to go too far for condoms … or antibiotics.

64: Age of the New Jersey guy who is about to run from the northernmost point in the state to the very bottom of Cape May. I’ll have what he’s having.

$41 million: What the Elmwood Park Zoo in Norristown just spent on a major expansion that includes an animal hospital. Elmwood Park Zoo is the zoo I went to as a little kid, and it’s a pretty cool place. And here’s an interesting thing about Elmwood Park Zoo: It could one day be bigger than America’s first zoo, the Philadelphia Zoo. That’s because the Philadelphia Zoo can’t really get much bigger, because of where it sits geographically and what’s around it. But that’s not the case with the Norristown zoo, which has big plans for the future.

Local Talent

In our just-published 2024 salaries report, I was shocked to learn than one well-known Philly actress made just $8,000 last year. $8,000! I think I spend that much on all my streaming services combined. I’m exaggerating, of course. But still: $8,000! “People don’t seem to give a shit about women,” the actress told me. “I can’t get theater work, because look at the cast lists. They are predominantly male and one or two non-union young women. It’s gross.” Meanwhile, South Philly drag queen Brittany Lynn tells me she took in more than $200,000 in 2023. For more on what Philadelphians make, check out our full report here.

And From the Heart-Stopper Sports Desk …

For the Sixers’ ginormous play-in game against the Heat last night, Nick Nurse started Kelly Oubre Jr., Tobias Harris, Kyle Lowry, Tyrese Maxey, and, thank God, Joel Embiid, who’d been listed as questionable (but who we all knew deep down would play). It was a slow-starting matchup — nerves, maybe? — but the Sixers were up 12-4 halfway through the first quarter. The Heat, mostly because of our seven sloppy turnovers, battled back to a 23-22 lead at the quarter’s end, after this foul by Oubre.

He stayed in the game, unfortunately. It was more of the same in the second, as Joel just couldn’t get free and the turnovers continued. The crowd was not at all pleased. Nurse finally called a time-out to try and stop the bleeding. Didn’t help. The Sixers were 1-for-14 from the field halfway through the second. Argh. Dreadful, hideous, sloppy, lazy game.

At least there was Bricken for Chicken in the third quarter. And just like that, the lead was down to six. “Boy, it didn’t take long for the crowd to get back into it,” ESPN’s Mike Breen declared. Hey, man, this is Philly! Then it was down to three … to two … A dumb move by Paul Reed gave a free throw to the Heat for delay of game, for chrissake. The Heat stretched it back out to 74-69 to end the third. And early in the fourth, Embiid hit his first trey and tied the game. A Nico Batum three — his fifth? — for the lead! And then a sixth!

He’d rack up a season-high 20 points. And then Embiid came to life. Tie game, backcourt violation on the Heat, 55 seconds to go, and Oubre comes through with a layup plus one on a perfect pass from Joel. A flying Maxey got fouled on a defensive rebound and sank two, Miami hit a two, questionable Sixer foul (on Batum), a Herro three, ball out of bounds with a heartbeat to go — and it was over: 105-104.

Guys. Guys. Don’t do that to us again. They face the Knicks next, starting on Saturday.

How’d the Phillies Do?

Well. Funny you should ask. Behind starter Cristopher Sánchez, we fell behind in the first inning, 1-0, but made up for it as Schwarber and Trea Turner started our half with back-to-back homers. Exciting! The Phils followed that up with hits by J.T. Realmuto, Alec Bohm and Brandon Marsh that tacked on two more and sent Sánchez back out with a 4-1 lead. We picked up another in the fifth on a Turner double and Realmuto ground-out, and damn if Schwarbs didn’t go yard again in the sixth after Johan Rojas doubled, to make it 7-1.

Yunior Marte came in for Sánchez for the seventh, then came out in the eighth for Gregory Soto, who loaded the bases with three straight singles and let one more run in, then walked in another to make it 7-3. End of night for him. Um, make that 7-4, as Jeff Hoffman gave up a grounder, then a walk to load the bases again, then a base hit that cut it to 7-6.

José Alvarado came on for the ninth, notched two outs, gave up a single, then allowed the runner to steal. Talk about your nervous crowd. But with a final pop-up out, it was all over: a very shaky 7-6 win. Whew. Tonight, a needed night off.

All Philly Today sports coverage is provided by Sandy Hingston.

Victor Fiorillo

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