Temple Univ. yesterday "postponed plans" to study building a $100M football stadium on its north Philadelphia campus, following "opposition from Mayor-elect Jim Kenney," according to Snyder & Narducci of the PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER. Temple BOT Chair Patrick O'Connor said that school 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." The "surprising turn" followed a Philadelphia Business Journal report yesterday that "noted Kenney's opposition." Temple's BOT had been "scheduled to discuss going ahead with a feasibility study and preliminary designs for the stadium." Temple President Neil Theobald: "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." Lauren Hitt, a spokesperson for Kenney, said that he "wants to learn more about how the university would lessen the effects on the neighborhood of large game-day crowds." Hitt said that Kenney also "wants to explore having the Owls continue to play at Lincoln Financial Field." She said that he understands that Theobald and O'Connor "are concerned about the Eagles raising Temple's price for using the stadium." But she said he "wants to explore that as an alternative to building a stadium." Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell yesterday "stated his support for the stadium on Twitter" (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 12/9).
TEXAS HOLD 'EM: In Lubbock, Don Williams reports Texas Tech AD Kirby Hocutt tomorrow "plans to ask the university's Board of Regents for final approval of Jones AT&T Stadium's north end zone redevelopment, including one significant modification." Instead of outdoor club seats extending off the north end zone building, Hocutt said that the athletic department "will ask for loge seating." Hocutt: "There would be four to eight seats per section that would have some type of limited privacy through some type of wall and counter space." He said each loge box or suite areas would "have one or two television monitors that would have the scoreboard feed ... or the ability to watch other games." Williams notes if the regents approve the loge seating, work would "begin immediately and extend into summer." The number of seats "would be about 250" (LUBBOCK AVALANCHE-JOURNAL, 12/9).
