Lincoln Financial Field, home of the Eagles, is the conspicuous facility because of its size. Even in the offseason, the ballpark across the parking lot is noticeable because of a bright red sign and a message board proclaiming its home inhabitant as Major League Baseball champions. Citizens Bank Park, which opened in 2004, is the home of Phillies while the Eagles’ home field is one year older.  Rounding out the last of the newer stadiums is the home of the Flyers and 76ers, which opened way back in 1996.

But amid the new palaces for this city’s sports teams sits a haunt for generations of Philadelphia entertainment fans. Like the aforementioned venues, the Spectrum’s formal name is preceded by a corporate sponsor. But while the arena doesn’t host big league events anymore, many sports fan have been making the trek to see a historic site that is scheduled to be razed this spring.

The Spectrum has been like an old friend to a sports-crazed city since it opened in 1967. There are many similarities between the old barn and Nassau Coliseum, which is undergoing a major public relations campaign by the Islanders to renovate what is considered by many fans to be an outdated facility.

Yet the Spectrum is undeniably one of the most storied places in North American sports. It has hosted two NBA All-Star Games and four Finals series, six Stanly Cup Finals series (one more than the Coliseum) and two All-Star contests, two Finals Fours and crossed over into the entertainment world, with banners still hanging that chronicled the Grateful Dead tours. From the cinema world, the Spectrum was in the script of the famous “Rocky” fight against Apollo Creed and the actual building at one time was the location of the famous statue to honor the fictional Rocky Balboa (sorry, Philly fans, he is just a character and not a real champion).

Some fans like Will Janson said some non-sports events will make the demolition of the Spectrum a sad day and could prompt him to take home some memorabilia before the doors close for good.

“I actually had the prettiest girl in the world sitting on my shoulders during a David Bowie concert in ’76″ Janson said. “She actually still lives in the neighborhood. I’ll try and grab a section of the wall and I’m going to try and grab my seats.”

The Spectrum serves as the home to the AHL’s Philadelphia Phantoms, the Flyers’ farm team. Though long since outdated for the modern NHL, the capacity of 17,380 for hockey allows fans to sit close to the ice, making it easy to envision the heyday of one of the most intimidating places to play for visiting teams when the Flyers were racking up consistent playoff appearances decades ago.

“I like the comradery here,” Brett Marino said during an intermission of a Phantoms game. “Everybody’s always glad to be here and glad to see a good game. It’s a shame. I’ll hate to see it go.”

Purple stanchions on the glass give the place a unique look and portraits of past Flyers and 76ers great players and coaches are painted on the walls of the narrow corridors that stretch around the arena.  Instead of an eagle-eye view of the action from the press box on the luxury box level, the press sits between the two-tiers of seats, sitting within ear-shot of the crowd. A small staircase actually located inside the media area allows access to the dressing room by descending two flights of stairs into the rickety underbelly that has served as the dressing room for Hall of Famers and A-list celebrities.

Passageways directly next to the benches lead from the dressing room to the ice, making the players who enter and exit the playing surface are level with the first rows of seats. Players are literally within touching distance of the fans. It’s easy to imagine fans of the  Broad Street Bullies taunting future Islanders Hall of Famers during the 1980 Stanley Cup Finals, where the Islanders were able to hold off a Philadelphia team that went undefeated for 35 games during the regular season to win the first of its four straight titles.

“The building is outdated ,but you can’t beat the seating here,” said Chris Poole, who has been coming to the Spectrum for the past three decades. “I saw my first concert here [to watch] Kiss.”

Almost 140,000 fans have passed through the Spectrum’s gates this season. Overall, the Phantoms average nearly 7,000 per game. Claude Giroux, the Flyers 2006 first-round pick who started the year in the AHL before getting called up, said it meant extra playing in the Spectrum.

“Every game, they cheer a lot,” Giroux said after a December win against Hartford. “It’s a big motivation every time we play here. We’re lucky to have those fans.”

New arenas seat closer to 20,000 people and offer amenities like more leg room, cup holders and wider lobbies, though there is usually a tradeoff with fans sitting further from ice level. The Devils’ new home in Newark exemplifies the dichotomy between modern perks and things like great sight lines for which old barns like the Spectrum were noted. Some fans like the close-quarter feelings a 42-year-old arena provides.

“It just has a nice feel,” Michelle Penkrot said. “It’s nice that it’s a little smaller.”

A patch that that espouses the arena as “America’s Showplace” is being worn on Phantoms jerseys this season. It is influenced by the original logo, replete with 1960s-era color scheme. The Phantoms could move to Allentown, Pa. next season after Comcast Spectator, the Spectrum’s owner, sold the team to Brooks Group of Pittsburgh. While those plans have not been finalized, there will certainly be a literal and figurative vacancy at the South Philadelphia Sports Complex.

“It’s very intimate,” Jansen said. “You’re close to [the action]. It’s old style now, well, it wasn’t back then. But it’s just perfect.”

Backup goalie Wade Dubielewicz played solid in replacement for Rick DiPietro, one of three players to sit out because of the illness. But the offense failed to provide support against a Kings team that entered the contest with the NHL’s lowest point total.

Instead of putting a solid effort against a young team, the Islanders took one penalty too many, setting up Rob Blake’s game-winning tally with the man advantage in a 3-1 loss in front of another small crowd at Nassau Coliseum.

The loss, coupled with a Rangers victory, knocked the Isles out of the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. It also stretched the home losing streak to six, a stretch that could prove to be the determining factor when the final postseason positions are settled.

“We need to get this thing going whether we shake up the line combinations or shorten our shifts to get out of this funk we’re in,” Islanders coach Ted Nolan said.

Defenseman Bryan Berard provided the only excitement all night for the home team. He intercepted Lubomir Visnovsky’s pass intended for Brian Willsie in the Kings zone and fired a shot that beat goalie Jason LeBarbera stick-side to tie it at 1 at 14:19 in the first.

LaBarbera would not allow anything more after that, finishing with 28 saves. The netminder extended the Islanders losing streak to three games before they head into Montreal on Saturday.

Assistant captain Mike Sillinger said perhaps a change of scenery could ignite a spark, though the 16-year veteran says wins need to start coming at home in order to make a return trip to the postseason.

“We were a good team at home last year and we made the playoffs,” Sillinger said. “We’re going to have to pick up our play. Especially in our building, we have to come out from the first shift.

“It seems like we’ve been stuck at 54 points for awhile. It’s frustrating, but it’s no time to start pointing fingers.”

Los Angeles couldn’t muster anything on special teams early on, going scoreless through the first four power play opportunities. That changed on the fifth try after the Islanders were tagged for having too many men on the ice midway through the final period.

Winger Dustin Brown glided a shot from the point that connected with Blake, who was stationed right in front of the crease. Blake extended his stick blade in time to deflect the puck through Dubielewicz’s pads, giving the Kings a 2-1 lead with 12:38 remaining in the game. Alexander Frolov added an empty-net goal for the clincher.

“W were in the box a lot,” said Berard, who also took a shift on the Islanders lone power play opportunity. “Our penalty killing’s been great for us, but they’re going to score [occasionally]. That was the difference tonight.”

Berard was one of five players who missed Wednesday’s practice with the flu. DiPietro, Andy Sutton and Ruslan Fedotenko sat out, but Berard and Sillinger both contributed. Nolan said health wasn’t an issue. He even called a lackluster second period that featured no scoring an experience as exciting as watching paint dry.

“The fact remains we didn’t compete,” Nolan said. “We didn’t find a way.”

Matt Moulson scored the opening goal 10:35 into the first. His fifth tally of the season helped the Kings improve to 6-2-1 in the past nine games. It also gave los Angeles three points through the first two contests of a 15-day trip that encompasses games against entire Atlantic Division along with matchups against Detroit, Columbus and St. Louis.

Dubielewicz made the first save against Moulson but couldn’t stop his second chance that was pushed into the net before the goalie could stop it with his left pad.

“The guy came around the net and tried to wrap it. It went off something in front.,” Dubielewicz said. “That’s our luck right now: he misses it and gets a second whack and puts it in. It’s the way things are going for us.”

Standing by his locker after the emergency start, Dubielewicz said the losses are frustrating, though he insisted there are positives that can be taken into Montreal.

“We’re in a pretty big hole right now but hopefully we took a good step tonight towards climbing our way out.”

Notes: During the second period, the announced crowd of 10,148 sounded like a Lincoln Center audience during the middle of a performance. It was the second straight home game in which the attendance figure failed to crack the 11,000 mark…DiPietro dressed and was available as the backup goalie…Brendan Witt was the only Islander to finish with a positive rating in the plus-minus category.