David Manning-USA TODAY Sports
Eight days ago, Temple University hired a new athletic director, Dr. Patrick Kraft, who played football at Indiana. Almost all interviews at Temple these days either begin with or end with a question about rumors of a new on-campus football stadium being floated around at the school.
Kraft paused and gave the usual stock answer: that every fan without an on-campus stadium wants one but the decision was way above his head. The people above his head, though, gave a clear indication of what they were thinking on the issue days before Kraft’s hiring — which is not much.
The Board of Trustees at Temple, a group that not only oversees Kraft but his boss, President Dr. Neil Theobald, never discussed the stadium at their scheduled May 12 meeting. In fact, they seemed surprised the question was asked. The next meeting is scheduled for July 14 and there is no indication that a stadium will be discussed even then. Time is of the essence for Temple because its lease with the Philadelphia Eagles to rent Lincoln Financial Field runs out at the end of the 2017 season. Even in the highly doubtful event a stadium is approved by the July meeting and a date for construction set, there will have to be a whole lot of fast shoveling for a stadium to be completed by opening day, 2018.
If all of this sounds very familiar, it should because UAB went through the same thing in 2011. Fans there anticipated that UAB would discuss a stadium at its various board meetings and those board meetings came and went with the issue not even being on the agenda. A year later, UAB dropped its stadium plan and, two years after that, the school dropped its football program.
There are two schools of thought on this: one involves the university floating the idea of an on-campus stadium was a smokescreen to drive down the Eagles’ rent demands, and the other involves the school getting “all of its ducks in a row” in terms of funding before going public. Since the stadium has been discussed for more than two years — supposedly a “done deal” as early as March 2013 — that is an awful lot of ducks.
Maybe too many ducks and too little time for Temple and the silence from the BOT has to have more than a few fans nervous about the future.
Mike Gibson is a writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @papreps , “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.
