I didn't see it discussed here but Temple's CFO did a presentation to the faculty on the financials involved with the stadiums.

I will just list some highlights.

Essentially it is a classic "rent vs buy" situation.

Temple's lease at the Linc (NFL stadium) runs out after 2017.

Temple has proposed and is pushing for a $126 mil campus stadium that will also feature a retail store section.

Temple owns the land and already has identified financing for the project.

The NFL team wants to increase the rent from $1 mil to $3 mil per year with a 30 year lease. (That's 90 million to the NFL team plus a $12 mil stadium improvement fee due at the start of the lease.)

Just as troubling are the game day expenses which have increased from $195k in 2003 to $1.7 million. A nine-fold increase. In the future the rate of increase can be expected to be 17% a year..

Campus game day expenses would be $875k with a 5% increase per year.

So total stadium cost for Temple in 2003 came in at $1.2 mil. In 2017 it will be $2.7 mil. If we stay at the NFL stadium in 2018 with the new lease, $5 million.

If Temple moved into their own campus stadium in 2018, they would save $21 mil by 2024 even if the attendance stays the same. Temple only gets 10% of the concessions at the NFL stadium and no parking money.

At the end of the presentation the faculty just sat speechless. The financial reality of the situation had turned them all around.

In my opinion, if we (Temple) don't get the campus stadium, the football program may be doomed. We would be stuck in an NFL stadium that's too big, too far from campus that comes with NFL sized expenses.