Curse of Billy Penn superstition

Local sports fans coined the 'Curse of Billy Penn' after skyscrapers built taller than the William Penn statue atop City Hall coincided with a long championship drought for Philadelphia's major sports teams. When the Comcast Center at 1701 John F Kennedy Blvd was topped out in 2007, a small William Penn figurine was placed on its final beam during the ceremony; some fans jokingly credited that gesture with the Philadelphia Phillies winning the 2008 World Series. The story is treated locally as a tongue-in-cheek superstition rather than empirical causation.