Season Tickets: Preaching to the Choir

Three weeks ago, I got my annual season ticket call from the guy who handles my account.

Nice guy and I told him that I would renew before the April deadline.

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Nothing would help Temple more than a stadium full of these people

We engaged in a little small talk and he asked me if I liked the new coach (I did), liked the game-day experience (I did) and what I thought of the game host (I thought she was terrific and reminded me very much of the cupcake girl in the above video). I wish I could remember her name, but I don’t. I think she does a terrific job and oozes charisma just like her doppelganger Camila Cabello. She’s a Temple student on Temple TV and I hope she continues to be a worthy successor to Ryan Rinaldi.

When I hung up the phone, though, I thought a couple of things: One, no amount of great shows on the Jumbotron will put people in the stands like winning and, two, even that might not be enough to impress the people Temple needs to impress.

Temple needs to direct all of its expenditures into becoming a Power 5 school.

Ironically, though, Temple would have been a Power 5 school a long time ago if it was able to duplicate the game-day experience the Owls had in 2015 for home games against Penn State and Notre Dame. In those games, the Owls had more home fans than both ND and PSU in capacity crowds, were much louder and had terrific TV numbers.

The problems have been the other games.

Frankly, Lincoln Financial Field is too big a venue and the Temple Board of Trustees tried to address this in building a campus stadium. Halve the tickets and create a demand that does not exist now. Nothing would impress the P5 more than a sold-out Temple stadium, whether it is a 35K one or 70K one. That seems to have hit a brick wall called the community.

When I hung up the phone it occurred to me, that the guy on the other end was preaching to the choir. People like me who have had season tickets for 40 years (minus one) will keep coming back. It’s the other ones that Temple needs to reach, the bulk of the 275,000 living alumni, the 40,000 full-time students and the 12,500 full-time employees.

If just one-quarter of that number get behind the football Owls consistently on a Saturday afternoon, that’s a Power 5 team that cannot be stopped.

Thursday: Temple Pro Day

 

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6 thoughts on “Season Tickets: Preaching to the Choir

  1. ESPN just cut a deal with the AAC which seems to treat them more than a G-5 conference but not quite a P-5 conference. Given that they are 100% behind the AAC, the claim that they are P-6 may turn out to be more than a marketing scheme given ESPN’s power. It may be bad thing because the P-5 conferences may shut down any talk of expansion and simply use the AAC’s deal to leverage even more money on their TV deals. (Frankly, shutting down expansion also helps the league by preventing teams from abandoning the league) Had an inkling that something like this could happen given ESPN’s coverage of the conference over the last several months.

    https://www.philly.com/college-sports/temple/temple-american-athletic-conference-espn-tv-deal-money-20190319.html

  2. I’m in the camp that thinks (hopes) the Power Conferences won’t be expanding in the near future. I know most readers of this blog keep hoping for TU to get into a P5 conference. But I just can’t see any of the those conferences needing to add TU. And other than Cincinnati possibly going to the Big 12 for some geographic expansion and a possible rivalry team close to WVU, I can’t see any other AAC school being attractive to the P5 conferences. But if expansion happens, probably Houston and Cincinnati go first. And that would really weaken the conference’s national stature. So here’s hoping the new ESPN deal affords the AAC stability and to be more competitive with facilities and coaches’ compensation. And in TU’s case, that they can compete for their conference championship every year and cover the FB program operating expenses.

    • SAT scores and academic ratings are also important criteria for expansion. Rutgers and Maryland are academically similar to the rest of the Big 10, more so than Temple.

      Houston is academically similar to the Big 12 schools.

      Temple must improve academically for serious ACC consideration.

      On the field in 2019, UCF, Cincy, and Memphis have Top 25 talent, and coaching staff experience.
      Houston, USF, Temple, and Tulane should be bowl teams.

      Seven bowl teams would be great for the AAC.

      • If West Virginia can get its academics into a Power 5 conference, Temple can, too. Temple is a far superior academic school to WVA in nearly every quantitative academic measure including research and acceptance rates.

      • The conferences other than the Big 10 will take anyone. With the academic scandal AT NC and the scandal at Miami, the ACC can’t keep anyone out based on academics.

  3. I didn’t attend your school, but considering all the doctors, lawyers, engineers, and teachers produced, how are the academics questioned? WVU in the Big 12 should be an easy comparison in that regard.

    I enjoy the expansion discussions. Memphis and Cincinnati would be likely Big 12 selections….geography, city schools, similar educational programs. While Houston checks a lot of boxes, do the Big 12’s want to compete with another program for Houston players along with A&M there waving the SEC flag?

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