… and I thought Temple dropped softball ….

With the hiring of an architect, Moody Nolan, the endless speculation about what the new on-campus stadium will look like can finally come to an end.

Temple Football Forever was given a working concept of what the stadium will look like and, while it admittedly is preliminary, this is what they were able to come up with:

“We’ll be working on this concept and refining it, of course,” our source said. “What you see here is a generalization based on something novel.”

If what you see above looks like a crude Roman Coliseum, our source says that the resemblance is on purpose.

“Dr. (Neil) Theobald asked us what we could give him for $100 million for the stadium and $26 million for retail. I said to Neil, ‘Well, we won’t be able to put seats in.’ Neil said, ‘We’re OK with benches. That’s fine.’

An art firm has been commissioned to paint this on the rolldown retail security doors in an attempt to “blend the project in with the surrounding community.”

“We then broke the bad news to him. We won’t be able to do seats,  or benches for $100 million, but we can give you concrete seating, just like the Roman Coliseum had. Neil didn’t look happy, but we sold him on the general concept and have the retail blend in like the outdoor markets in front of the old Roman Coliseum. One of the retail stores will be called Animal House and it will sell themed items like sandals and Cherry and White togas. We could make it a Roman/Greek themed Stadium by calling it the Apollo of Temple. The President said that idea was already tried, but could be revived.

The old Geasey Field scoreboard.

‘It was a hard sell, because the President kept saying the Board of Trustees would not go a penny over $126 million so that made it tough. We said we can just move the current Geasey Field scoreboard over to the new stadium to cut corners.

“We finally sold the President when we said we would not only blend our theme in with the design of the stadium and the retail, but we would blend the rolldown security doors on the retail stores with the surrounding community. We’ve even commissioned an art firm to paint the row houses of the community on those doors so the project looks like an extension of the neighborhood.”

There will be a fun element the retail.

“Much of the Roman/Greek theme will be playing up the whole Apollo of Temple concept. The President thought that could be fun. Temple will be the only fan base in the country with a toga party tailgate. So we’re going to pour the concrete as soon as we can and hope to get this thing done in 18 months after that. The only thing we’re concerned about are the fans getting butt hurt over the deal.”

“You mean, because there are no seatbacks or video boards?” I said.

“No, because they are going to have to sit on concrete for three hours every week but the President said something that made sense. He said, ‘If the Romans could sit on concrete for three hours watching Chariot races, then our Temple Tuff fans shouldn’t mind the concrete at all for football games.’

“After that we shook hands and said, ‘Done deal.’ ”

Happy April Fool’s Day everyone.

Sunday: The First Scrimmage

Tuesday: Funding Ideas For Stadium

Related:

Big 10

Urban Meyer

Devonte Watson