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Fall Full-Capacity Concerts, Xfinity Live! Preparing To Reopen Has Philadelphia's Stadium District Buzzing With Energy

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Wells Fargo Center is preparing for concerts this fall and Xfinity Live! is hiring ahead of its reopening.

Four-thousand in orange grabbing pretzels and peeping some Flyers hockey for a Saturday matinee. The Flyers picked up a critical 3-2 win over the Boston Bruins at Wells Fargo Center.

"It was lonely around this building for the first half of the season," Wells Fargo Center General Manager Phil Laws said. "I had better seat."

Wells Fargo Center announced this week five full-capacity concerts coming to Philly beginning in September as the stadium district tries to open back up.

Laws says the supply of performers anxious to get on the road matches the appetite of the public. But a full stadium in five months?

He says they'll continue to work with state and local officials and monitoring CDC guidelines.

"Everyone is reading the tea leaves a little bit on this. The vaccination rollout is accelerating," Laws said. "The case counts haven't necessarily gone where we want in the last couple of weeks, but I think there's a lot of confidence as warm weather comes and the fully vaccination population grows that we're going to see full-capacity crowds in this building."

As of Saturday afternoon, according to Philadelphia COVID-19 vaccine statistics, 26.1% of Philly residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine and 15.7% are fully vaccinated.

If the teams provide the experience.

"Bartenders, servers, barback, host, hostesses," Xfinity Live! COO Tony Monaco said.

Xfinity Live! brings the energy as it looks to fill roughly 200 positions.

"Line cooks, pizza makers, prep cooks," Monaco said.

The popular space held a weekend job fair as it must rebuild nearly its entire staff from scratch after closing in November due to COVID.

"We're targeting a mid-May reopening for Xfinity Live!, and we're excited to bring people back and create jobs for the city," Monaco said.

The hunger and thirst are there. It remains just a matter of time.

"I'm excited to see what it's going to be like when everything really starts to come back," Monaco said. "The more things added here, the more energy that's down here."

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