Temple University postponed plans Tuesday to study
building a $100 million football stadium on its North Philadelphia campus,
following opposition from Mayor-elect Jim Kenney.
Patrick O'Connor, chairman of Temple's board of trustees,
said university officials would meet with Kenney and his team within the next
week to talk about the university's interest in placing a 35,000-seat stadium
at the northwest corner of campus.
O'Connor's announcement came at a meeting of the
trustees. Outside, about 50 students, faculty, and community members protested
against spending money on a stadium rather than on students and teaching.
The surprising turn followed a Philadelphia Business
Journal article published Tuesday afternoon that noted Kenney's opposition.
Temple's board of trustees had been scheduled to discuss going ahead with a
feasibility study and preliminary designs for the stadium.
Temple president Neil D. Theobald said that someone
pulled up the article on a cellphone, which led university officials to put the
brakes on their plans.
"If the mayor[-elect] has questions, and it wasn't
clear from the article exactly what issues he has, in our planning process we want
to make sure we hear from him, meet with him, talk to him, before we do
anything," Theobald said after the meeting.
Kenney was unavailable for comment, but spokeswoman
Lauren Hitt said he first announced his concerns with the plan at a town-hall
meeting at Strawberry Mansion High School on Friday night.
She said Kenney wants to learn more about how the
university would lessen the effects on the neighborhood of large game-day
crowds. He also wants to explore having the Owls continue to play at Lincoln
Financial Field, Hitt said.
He understands, she said, that Theobald and O'Connor are
concerned about the Eagles raising Temple's price for using the stadium. But
"he wants to explore that as an alternative to building a stadium,"
she said.
"This isn't about Temple-bashing," she said,
noting that Kenney's daughter is scheduled to transfer to Temple next month.
"It's just a matter of making sure this expansion makes sense."
Former Gov. Ed Rendell stated his support for the stadium
on Twitter.
"It should be done," he said, touting benefits
to the university and the community.
O'Connor said the university would have to decide within
the next month or so whether to proceed. The university's current lease expires
on the stadium in 2017, and the university has agreed to two one-year
extensions beyond that.
"I'd prefer it on campus," O'Connor said of the
stadium. "I think it's a win-win for the community and the university, but
we certainly don't want to do it without consensus."
He said the plan includes shops and medical services for
the community. The feasibility study would explore addressing parking, trash,
and noise - the major neighborhood concerns, Temple spokesman Ray Betzner said.
It's unclear where communication broke down between
Kenney and the university that calls itself Philadelphia's public university.
"I talked to him two to three times to explain to
him what we were planning to do," Theobald said, most recently on
Halloween when Temple played Notre Dame. "I don't know if he has new
information, if he has other ideas. I don't know the basis of the
comment."
The meeting was held with an unusually large university
police presence. Temple police barred the entrances to Sullivan Hall, allowing
only a few of the protesters into the meeting. The group's chants could be
heard from inside.
Among the protesters was a group also calling for a
higher minimum wage - $15 an hour - for workers.
"Up with the wages, down with the stadium,"
they chanted.
"They ignore us over and over again, and then all of
a sudden, they have $100 million to build a stadium in North
Philadelphia," said Zoe Buckwalter, 21, a senior from Lancaster.
"We're not going to give up until we get a response from them and they
start to function more democratically."
Loretta Murphy, who has lived in the 1600 block of North
Bouvier Street for 35 years, said a stadium does not belong in a residential
area.
"For a lot of us, this is home," she said.
"This is not about real estate to us. This is where we live."
Source: Philly.com
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