The Seventh Annual Plea For Temple To Build a Football Stadium On Campus
Another college football season is upon us and it’s not farfetched to say it will be the final of its kind. In recent months, there has been a total upheaval of college football conferences. It’s resulted in a brand new era with obscure realignment and a break from tradition. Everything is changing: the conferences, the teams in those conferences, even the television network deals.
Unfortunately, nothing has changed for Temple football. While most every other football program was jockeying for position, Temple was the horse who was too stubborn to enter the starting gate.
A lot has changed on Temple’s campus in recent years with a bevy of new buildings and landmarks. It looks like a totally new campus from even when I graduated (2017).
And yet, there have been no improvements to the position football program and its stadium situation. They are still at The Linc, and the fans still aren’t buying in. In 2013, the administration at Temple made the decision to cut seven of its collegiate sports programs. It was a move that signaled a financial emphasis on the football program. A decade later, the football program is back to clinging to relevance in a half empty stadium. The outcome they once hoped to finally rid themselves of.
It’s hard to foresee a stadium coming down the pipeline anytime soon for Temple either. In 2020, Temple inked a new deal with Lincoln Financial Field to use its facilities for up to 10 years with a five year option. That would put them in the process of starting their fourth football season in this deal. In March, maligned president of the university, Jason Wingard resigned. JoAnne Epps was named acting president and still remains to this day. It seems unrealistic to even dream that an acting president at a university facing harsh criticism for their grip on safety on campus, would have building a controversial football stadium at the forefront of their mind.
On top of that, in late 2022, the Sixers announced plans for their 76Place Arena in Chinatown. The arena being constructed within the heart of the city was met with intense blowback that was similar to what Temple faced when the Board of Trustees approved moving forward with a stadium in 2016. It’s hard to believe the city of Philadelphia will move forward with the construction of not one, but two controversial stadium/arena proposals within the next decade.
College football is an ever changing landscape where no sudden movement from conference to conference should surprise anyone. Since writing this, SMU was formally accepted into the ACC. The Mustangs are a comparable program to Temple, much like Houston and Cincinnati who also left the AAC for a larger conference that can offer more television revenue.
Each of those programs are located in a metropolitan area with limited campus space. In the same city, they are overshadowed by a professional football team. And when you expand the lens, they are overshadowed by a larger state school that features a perennial powerhouse football program. And yet, the trio of SMU, Houston and Cincy have all found ways to carve out their niche and elevate themselves to the P5. For Temple, they’ve been relegated to an island of misfit toys with the likes of UTSA and North Texas.
Admittedly, this annual piece on the Temple stadium used to be a passion project of mine. But that passion for anything Temple football related has been replaced by apathy. The writing is on the wall, this administration is apathetic too. And it won’t lead to a football stadium for Temple anytime soon, if ever.