Philadelphia City Hall and the 'Curse of Billy Penn'

The William Penn statue atop Philadelphia City Hall has been central to a local sports superstition known as the 'Curse of Billy Penn,' which held that Philadelphia's major professional teams would not win championships after buildings taller than the statue were constructed. The city added a small William Penn statue atop the then-new Comcast Center in 2007 as a playful attempt to 'appease' the curse, a move widely reported in contemporary media. The superstition is a matter of popular folklore rather than a documented causal phenomenon.