The 3rd Annual: Plea for Temple to Build a Football Stadium on Campus
With the dawn of a new college football season comes a dawn of yet another regime for Temple. The footprints of Matt Rhule have now faded. The only remnants of his stay in North Philly are the widespread success stories who played for him, now in the NFL. Geoff Collins and all his gimmicks have moved on as well. And the Manny Diaz era has gone, just about as quickly as it came.
Everything seems to be changing at Temple University these days. There is a new, state of the art library in the middle of campus where machines put all the books back for the students. There is a new, extravagant skywalk stretching from the Business School to the building where the Health and Services Center is located in case you need to get checked for chlamydia after Intro to Risk Management. For the first time in almost two decades, even the basketball coach has changed at Temple.
Despite all the change the University has undergone and continues to undergo, one piece has remained constant: good football standing the American Athletic Conference. Yes, the island of misfit toys that is the AAC has seen the Owls tout a winning record each of the last four seasons. For a program that was exiled from the Big East around the turn of the century, this accomplishment shouldn’t be scoffed at. Temple has gone toe to toe with other programs of its size and status in the conference, programs that have FULLY committed to football (by building stadiums on campus), and have become an upper echelon team in the American.
The next, and last step for this program to become “Power 6” school royalty is stability. A trait this program has longed for, a trait this program is on the cusp of, and a trait a stadium would create. Temple hovers around the top tier of the AAC with the likes of Cincinnati and UCF, two schools that are similar to Temple in nature. Or in this case, the college football eco-system. These are all schools in bustling metropolitan areas. Home to a campus that is a city within a city. Despite a recent increase in applications and enrollment, they will never reign supreme in their respective states, constantly being overshadowed by a blue-blood powerhouse that calls that state home.
The only difference between Temple and the other schools of their stature? UCF committed to building 45,000 seat stadium within the past decade (well, 2007) on their campus. They renovated the stadium as recently as 2017. Cincinnati committed to building a 40,000 seat stadium on its campus. They also recently renovated the stadium as early as 2017. Temple has shuffled its feet on following suit. A stadium cements Temple’s status along with these schools and delivers them the faint outside hope these other schools have that they will be considered for the bottom of the food chain in a Power 5 conference.
At this point in the process, the arguments between Stadium Stompers, and logical thinkers who understand the business of college athletics at its core, have become tiresome and stale.
Those opposed to the stadium have this delusional belief that people will be thrown out their homes so the buildings can be torn down so this monstrosity can be built. In reality, Temple already owns the land they plan to build the stadium on. It’s an AstroTurf lot they use for fall intramural events. The only thing they will be tearing down are the memories of a storied flag-football passed for all of us who couldn’t make it playing tackle football. In fact, right next to the proposed site, was a public track. Temple recently turned it into a new Health and Wellness Center. Where are the Health and Wellness Center Stompers and why didn’t they stop this from being built?!
People will complain about the traffic gamedays will bring. As we sit in elongated rush hours (even for Philly) due to a two day long music festival that closes one of the busiest roadways in the city, take some time to ponder. Ponder how ridiculous its sounds to use traffic as a rebuttal against the stadium in a town that is home to the Schuylkill Expressway.
The only legitimate argument to a stadium on campus would be its impact on the relations between Temple’s campus and the neighboring communities. Relations have been strained as Temple’s campus continually expands through the construction of brand new, off-campus housing. In essentially what can be looked at as a trade-off for the stadium, Temple has proposed and gathered funding for a community facility that specializes in early learning as well as mental health and even features a dental clinic. Pretty decent unofficial trade. The much larger issue is that the area surrounding Temple’s campus has turned into a glorified episode of Flip or Flop. Instead of low income housing being built, it’s new age upscale apartments for students. A stadium, built on Temple land, on the same block as the quite sizable basketball arena, has nothing to do with that.
The carousel Temple football has been on the past half decade has been coupled with unprecedented success. Continuing to sustain success will only come with stability. You want coaches to call Philly home, and mean it. You want players to come into this program and feel at home. You want alumni to come back to the school they once called home. Well, start by giving a place for everyone to call home.