About eight months before Temple University football is scheduled to host their first home game, Temple still has no contract the Philadelphia Eagles to play football at Lincoln Financial Field in the fall.
Bill Bergman, Temple’s vice president of external affairs, confirmed that the university has not yet reached a contract with the Eagles for the 2020-21 season.
A spokesperson for the Eagles did not respond to a request for comment.
The university’s 15-year lease, which was set to expire in 2017, was extended so the Owls could play their home games at the Linc during the 2018 and 2019 seasons, The Temple News reported.
The news comes amid uncertainty over the future of Temple’s now-stalled plan to build a 35,000-seat on-campus stadium. The plan has been met with criticism from community residents and students who argue that the stadium would amplify trash and noise issues already present in the neighborhood.
The university hoped to have its proposal for the stadium filed with the City Planning Commission in June 2018 but missed its self-imposed deadline as it continued to work on winning over community residents, The Temple News reported.
In 2018, Bergman told The Temple News the Owls were not considering playing anywhere else besides the Linc. He declined to elaborate on the details of a potential contract with the Linc for 2020.
Temple currently pays $1 million a year to play at the Linc. If it renews another contract, the price could rise to $3 million, prompting the university to look into other options, The Temple News reported.
The Eagles’ leasing contract with Temple, established in 2003, began as a partnership between the Eagles, the university and the city but evolved to become more of a power dynamic, said University CFO and Treasurer Ken Kaiser in 2016.
“The Eagles aren’t in business to win Super Bowls, they’re in business to make money,” Kaiser said in 2016. “A for-profit charges what the market will pay.”
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