Temple is still pursuing an on-campus stadium, President Richard Englert told students and faculty at the State of the University address on Thursday.
Englert said the goal is to have a “multipurpose facility” that could possibly include retail, research and classroom space that would have “benefits for our neighbors as well as students.”
Temple began conducting a $1.25 million feasibility study with Ohio-based architecture firm Moody Nolan in February 2016 to create renderings of a possible 35,000-seat stadium.
“We continue to explore and study all of the ramifications,” Englert told The Temple News after the address. “At this moment, we have not made a decision, but we continue to look at it. … We want to make certain that we understand that if there were [a stadium], what are all of the ramifications for our neighbors.”
“We want to make certain that if there were one, it benefits the neighborhood,” he added.
The university currently has “multiple” feasibility studies going on, Englert told The Temple News.
Last February, Moody Nolan told The Temple News that the study was “on hold” and Dozie Ibeh, the Temple Project Delivery Group Associate Vice President who manages all construction projects on Main Campus, said he hadn’t seen the stadium plans “for months.”
Englert added during his address that the university wants to build the proposed stadium on 15th Street between Norris Street and Montgomery Avenue because the university will attain a net savings using “our own facility” of $2 to $3 million a year.
Student Body President Tyrell Mann-Barnes said his administration stands by its platform that they will advocate for the stadium to “not negatively impact” the North Philadelphia community.
“I think with the benefits it has to our campus community, we have to also be weary of what it does to the surrounding community of North Philadelphia in the long term,” Mann-Barnes added.
The university currently has a rental contract with the Philadelphia Eagles to use Lincoln Financial Field for games through 2019. The university’s lease agreement began in 2003.
Temple U. needs to weather the storm and move forward on the stadium. With an on campus facility, they save rent money now going to the Linc, allowing the football program to move forward and actually make money. How?? Within a few short years they‘ll be able to apply and get accepted into the ACC and benefit from all the TV revenue from both football and basketball.