Temple needs to embrace the Eagles’ success

Temple students headed to the Eagles’ Super Bowl winning parade in Feb. of 2018.

Temple students love football.

Temple students love the Philadelphia Eagles.

Temple students probably don’t love their own football Owls as much but, if anyone understands the connection between the students, President of the university and the pro team in town it is new head coach K.C. Keeler

Owls share the same stadium with the NFC champion Eagles and that needs to be a selling point both for recruits and fans.

Maybe he can do something about it.

Already Keeler is pounding the pavement talking about his team and the Eagles.

Last week, at the annual Philadelphia sports writers dinner, Keeler told the story of scheduling a team meeting at the same time the Eagles were playing the Green Bay Packers.

“One of the players took me aside and said, ‘Coach, do you know that’s the same time the Eagles’ game starts?’ I said we can adjust.”

And that’s just what Keeler did.

Team meeting was scheduled for after the game and a team bonding session was scheduled around watching it.

Keeler also likes to tell the story of Temple president John Fry cheering for the Eagles as a selling point for him to take the Temple job.

Brainstorming ways to tie in recruiting to playing in the Eagles’ stadium in front of NFL scouts is one way to make up the difference between Temple’s NIL and, say, Memphis. Coming to Philadelphia to play in an NFL stadium was the major selling point for kicker Maddox Trijillo and, partially as a result, he will be kicking for an NFL team next year.

Keeler needs to sell that.

Temple as an institution needs to help out with creative ticket-selling ideals. While students are given free tickets to the games, getting them inside the stadium as been the rub in the past. Maybe an Eagles’ ticket giveway to a student who is actually seating somewhere in the stadium in the fourth quarter one idea to put fannies in the seats.

It could not hurt. Maybe it starts as 100 fannies. If word spreads through loudspeakers on campus during the week that a couple of students won Eagles tickets, maybe that 100 turns into 1,000 the next week and so on and so forth.

Beyond that, any paying Temple season ticket-holder who is also inside the stadium in the fourth quarter gets a shot at winning a raffle for Eagles’ tickets.

Buying those few Eagles season tickets is an investment that probably won’t pack the stadium but would certainly capitalize on the connection the city feels with their NFL football team.

Getting some of those fans into the stadium to see an exciting and well-coached Temple team might create a similar bond.

Friday: The No-So-Dirty Dozen

2 thoughts on “Temple needs to embrace the Eagles’ success

  1. Given the rent paid for using the publicly funded (in part) facility of the Eagles, maybe some freebies should be thrown in….unless there are some, already being used by higher-ups. Pretty sure there’s a waiting list for season tickets and a few hundred held back for public single game sales during the summer.

    • Once Doc Chodoff (RIP) told me the President of Temple has a box he can use during Eagles games comped by Jeffrey Lurie, including playoffs. Maybe Fry still has it. Put some lucky Temple fans and students in there for games based on getting their asses inside the stadium for four quarters and not spending the whole day outside tailgating and drinking like so many students (and, to a lesser extent alumni, do).

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