Temple University says it is still interested in moving its football program to a new on-campus stadium, and continues the effort to bring the facility to fruition.
In the past few years, Temple has worked on a new on-campus stadium that could supplant Lincoln Financial Field as the home of its football program. The university has already exercised its option to use Lincoln Financial Field–home to the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles–for 2018 and will likely exercise a second option for 2019.
While Temple believes that there would be a financial benefit to moving football into its own stadium, members of the campus community and residents of nearby neighborhoods have previously weighed in with their objections to the facility.
The university continues to pursue a new stadium. According to remarks from Temple president Richard M. Englert during his recent state of the university address, Temple believes not only in the financial benefit of the stadium, but also the ability to make the facility multi-purpose. It has also been meeting with neighbors and community organizations to discuss concerns over a potential stadium. More from The Philadelphia Inquirer:
“If such a facility were to be built, our goal would be a multi-purpose facility that will have benefits for our neighbors as well as the university,” Englert said.
He also outlined a point that has been made frequently before, that he feels Temple could save money by building its own facility over continuing to pay rent to play at the Linc.
“In fact, we believe that owning our own facility, rather than renting, would result in a net $2 million to $3 million in annual cost savings,” Englert said.
Temple has been meeting with neighbors and community leaders, trying to alleviate any concerns about the stadium being in their neighborhood and outlining the positive impact it would have. The stadium would be situated at the northwest corner of campus, about a block or two north of the Liacouras Center at Broad and Norris Street.
Temple has previously pitched the proposed facility as a 35,000-seat stadium.
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