How old is this school? Why did they not plan accordingly?
Corinthcoog, Temple is an inner city school in a city that was built before the automobile (meaning everything was built close in), unlike UH which had plenty of land to claim at the time it was founded.
Texans similarly were trying to screw the Coogs the one year that they needed a home.
About that last bit: The Eagles’ stadium is about two miles away from Temple’s campus, a trip that takes about 13 minutes by car and 25 minutes by bus. It’s an ideal setup for a public university located in a major city, or would be if the Eagles were not fleecing Temple during every year that the Owls have played in their stadium. They have been fleecing Temple, though, charging a fee of over $1 million per season, plus stadium operating costs, which come out to over $265,000 per game. This is after the Eagles got Philadelphia taxpayers to help build the stadium back in 2000; the city and state government agreed to pay $188 million of the Eagles stadium’s $512 million price tag, or about 36 percent.
Temple’s lease ran out in 2017, although the school’s administration already decided to exercise the options for both 2018 and 2019. But Temple has very publicly committed to the fact that 2019 will be its final year partnering with the Eagles, in large part because the Eagles were asking the university to lock into a 30-year lease that would have run the school $2 million per year, with a required upfront payment of $12 million. Back in 2015, that proposal drew the ire of Philadelphia mayor Jim Kenney:
“The Eagles have a point of view and I don’t agree with their point of view. It’s all about dollars and cents, and I don’t know if we’re going to resolve that or not,” said Kenney.
According to a report from The Temple News, the proposal for the on-campus athletic venue did not achieve its goal of obtaining enough support from the surrounding community in order to move forward with the plan. This was likely to be expected after the stadium plans stalled during a city council meeting earlier this year. This occurred shortly after protestors interrupted a town hall meeting about the project the previous week.
“We’re not there yet,” Temple Vice President of Public Affairs Bill Bergman said in the report. “We continue to work with neighbors, talk to neighbors. We’re really looking at what we need to do this summer.”
This is really a controversial topic over on OwlsDaily.com (247 Sports) with fans seemingly split about 50-50.
They’re really between a rock and a hard place as they’re being gouged by the Eagles to play in a mostly empty pro stadium.
Surprised they don’t try to move over to Penn’s Franklin Field as it isn’t too far and is only a little smaller than Lincoln Financial (50K+).
Other option is the MLS soccer stadium, but that only seats 18,500 and Temple can easily surpass that for bigger games.