Fans who get overwhelmed by the roar of a sold-out Sixers or Flyers crowd now have somewhere to go at Xfinity Mobile Arena. A new sensory room on the suite level offers a quiet space for visitors with autism, ADHD, PTSD or other sensory processing needs to step away and reset before heading back to their seats.
The room was developed by Kidology, a pediatric therapy agency, and grew out of the company's play-based therapy approach, according to CBS News Philadelphia. The outlet reports that Kidology has introduced its work to families before through a therapy bus featuring spaces designed to help children learn and feel at ease, and the arena room follows that same philosophy on a larger scale.
Kidology founder Luba Patlakh-Kaplun said the room's interior was recreated to resemble a one-on-one therapy room at the company's clinic, per the same CBS News Philadelphia report. The space is modeled directly after Kidology's Bucks County clinic, where children receive speech, occupational and physical therapy, and it includes a sensory crawl area meant to echo that clinical setting. Patlakh-Kaplun said play supports children's growth and learning, a principle she carried over into the arena design.
How the Room Works During Games
The sensory room is located on the suite level of Xfinity Mobile Arena and gets used during Flyers games, Sixers games and family events including Disney on Ice, the station's report notes. Tori Kimberly, the arena's senior director of communications, said the room is intended for about 10 or 15 minutes of regulation before fans return to the game, sent off with a free sensory bag containing items such as a coloring book and fidget toys. The room is available during every event, and adults needing a break can use it too, not just children.
Patlakh-Kaplun said Kidology hopes the setup makes the experience easier and helps as many families as possible get through a live event without having to leave early, per the same account. Operating clinics in Southampton and Northeast Philadelphia, Kidology provides speech, occupational, physical, behavioral and myofunctional therapy for children from birth to age 21 and has served over 150,000 area families, according to Suburban Life Magazine. Each Kidology clinic also includes a specialized sensory play gym called a Kidology Playspace, the magazine notes, which helped shape the arena room's design.
A $5 Million Business Built on a Gap in Care
Kidology was founded in 2014 by speech-language pathologist Luba Patlakh Kaplun and has since grown into a nearly $5 million-a-year operation, as reported by Business Insider. Kaplun started the business after identifying a regional shortage of bilingual speech pathology services, according to that report, long before the company's methods made their way into a professional sports venue.
The arena's new addition also lands at a moment when autism diagnoses are climbing nationally. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data released in April 2025 shows autism spectrum disorder now affects an estimated 1 in 31 eight-year-olds in the United States, up from 1 in 36 reported in 2023, per the CDC findings cited by Autism Speaks. The same surveillance data found eight-year-old boys are 3.4 times more likely to be diagnosed than girls, with prevalence reaching 1 in 20 boys compared to 1 in 70 girls nationwide.
Part of a Citywide and Complex-Wide Push
Xfinity Mobile Arena, which took on its current name in a rebranding from Wells Fargo Center that took effect September 1, 2025, joins the other two venues in the South Philadelphia Sports Complex in offering dedicated sensory accommodations. Lincoln Financial Field opened one of the NFL's first permanent sensory rooms in August 2019 through a partnership with KultureCity and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, a project Hoodline mentioned in prior coverage of the Eagles' fan culture. Citizens Bank Park followed in August 2022 with a mobile Sensory Activation Vehicle built with KultureCity, featuring Yogibo bean bags, Nanoleaf light panels and bubble walls, according to MLB.com.
Philadelphia itself became a certified sensory-inclusive city through KultureCity in December 2023, a designation that standardized staff training and quiet-space accommodations across municipal facilities, per the City of Philadelphia. That citywide framework mirrors a broader national shift: State Farm Arena in Atlanta became the first NBA home venue to earn KultureCity sensory-inclusive certification back in 2019, a milestone Hoodline covered in its piece on the Hawks' sensory-friendly upgrades. Similar efforts have since reached far beyond arenas, with San Francisco International Airport opening a post-security sensory room in December 2024 and Milwaukee establishing a citywide sensory-inclusive plan in April 2026.
Taken together, the additions across South Philadelphia's sports complex suggest venue operators increasingly see sensory rooms less as a novelty and more as a standard part of guest services, alongside wheelchair access and assistive listening systems. For now, fans heading to Xfinity Mobile Arena for a Flyers game, a Sixers game or a family event like Disney on Ice have a dedicated place to retreat to if the noise and crowds become too much.
