The Fifth Annual Plea For Temple To Build a Football Stadium On Campus

Since Temple last played a home game at Lincoln Financial Field in front of fans, the entire landscape of college football has changed. COVID-19 rocked the NCAA docket, almost cancelling the 2020 season. The NIL law was passed so that players can now be compensated based on their likeness. The conferences have once again re-aligned with Texas and Oklahoma making a power play towards the SEC while the Big 12 poached premier Power 6 talent to stay afloat. So yes, in quite possibly every way imaginable, college football has changed forever. But when Temple University takes the field for their home opener on Saturday against Boston College, nothing will have changed for the program at all. For Temple, it is still a necessity to build a stadium on campus to legitimize their program.

 

When the first plea for an on-campus stadium was written, the Matt Rhule era still reigned supreme. Applications were still flowing into Temple after an appearance on College Gameday like Hogwarts flooding Harry Potter’s house on Privet Drive when they wanted him to come to school. Now, the program is fading back into an underwhelming state of complacency: good enough to beat the doors off Akron. Bad enough to make even the bottom dwellers of a Power 5 school look like College Football Playoff contenders. At Lincoln Financial Field, the Temple Owls are floating in football purgatory.

 

Back on campus, nothing looks the same as it did just several years ago, as they have poured money into renovating and improving the campus. The library looks like a state of the art Amazon creation. They completely redid Liacouras Walk with bright lights so girls can post with the caption, “I’ve been losing friends and finding peace, honestly that sounds like a fair trade to me” after their first fight with their freshman roommate. They somehow even managed to gentrify the Bagel Hut. The Bagel Hut!! 

Everything on campus has improved, because that is what you do to attract high school students to sign up for four years of tuition payments. The first time I ever played Monopoly with my dad he won so handily it was dumbfounding. I tried to save my money. He bought every property. By the end, he was collecting rent from me each time I rolled the dice. The same logic applies to universities attracting students: you spend money, to make money. And Temple to their credit has done that. They are constantly building and renovating to create a state of the art, modern university. (Sometimes they take it too far and close the Draught Horse for gym space, you greedy monsters). So why are some people so hard pressed to believe an on-campus stadium would embrace the modernity of the campus?

 

As Temple continues to expand its reach through North Philadelphia with off-campus housing apartments, the Stadium Stompers disappear like Ben Simmons in the 4th of Game 7 against the Hawks. But if Temple builds a stadium on property the university already owns (an intramural field) that is where we have our call to justice. 

 

“The area to be developed is bound by Broad Street on the east; Norris Street on the north; 16th Street on the west; and Pearson-McGonigle halls and the Aramark STAR Complex on the south. This property is already within Temple’s existing footprint and owned by the university. With the exception of the closure of 15th Street between Norris and Montgomery, no additional land is needed for the facility. The adjacent Amos Recreation Center, which is owned and operated by the City of Philadelphia, will remain.” – The Temple News

 

Apartment buildings in neighboring communities being gutted and flipped for off-campus housing? Fine. The job creating stadium? That is where we draw the line. Speaking of jobs, they certainly are needed at a time like this. There would be people needed to build the stadium. There would be people needed to park the cars. There would be people needed to cook and sell the food. All great job opportunities. Oh, and speaking of the last two job examples, Temple, under its current lease with Lincoln Financial Field, does not see revenue for parking and minimal revenue for concessions. If you are worried about the football program bleeding money from the university, the lease at the Linc is absolutely hemorrhaging it.

 

So where should the Temple administration go from here? Move forward with the proposal for the 35,000 seat multi-purpose stadium. Currently, Temple plays in the largest stadium in the AAC. The size of the stadium disproportionately represents the demand and creates a huge eyesore for fans and viewers alike. Tulane formerly played in the Mercedes-Benz Super Dome in New Orleans with a capacity of 73,000. They recently built the 30,000 seat Yulman Stadium on its campus. The Green Wave continue to be an up and coming program settling in nicely to their Power 6 role. In Week 1, they almost pulled off the upset against Oklahoma. And while they will never BE Oklahoma, they are now drawing talent to hold their own with upper echelon programs. 

While Tulane’s construction of an on-campus stadium is a good example for Temple to look to, the University of Cincinnati is precisely who Temple should be replicating. They are an AAC level school playing in a major media market. They aren’t the main football attraction in their town, that would be the Cincinnati Bengals. They are far from the biggest college football program in their state, that would be Ohio State. Sound familiar to Temple’s position in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania? So Cincy has settled comfortably into the role that fits them. They play in Nippert Stadium, an on-campus stadium that was renovated as recently as 2014-15. They then again renovated it to expand it in 2017 for soccer. The largest attendance in program history is slightly over 40,000.

 

It is hard to believe it now, but Temple has played in more AAC Championship Games than the Cincy Bearcats have. Yet, when the Big 12 handed out invitations to their party, it was Cincinnati who received one of the invites. Temple should be the spitting image of what Cincinnati is becoming. 

 

Since the start of 2020, life has shapeshifted for everyone. It honestly hasn’t shapeshifted much for the Temple University football program. You build the football program to return yourself to relevancy. You follow in the footsteps of your current, soon to be former conference colleagues, UCF and Cincinnati. Know your role, and spend the money to play it well. Build the stadium, and just like Field of Dreams, they will come.

By Aidan Powers | September 17, 2021
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