Ed Rendell Is All In For A Temple Football Stadium
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Ed Rendell voiced his full support behind a proposal to build a $100 million dollar football stadium on the campus of Temple University. The team's strong performance this season, including a high profile matchup with Notre Dame last weekend, has sparked a debate about whether the school really needs a stadium, but the former Pennsylvania Governor is on board.
Rendell, talking with Rich Zeoli on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT, said the economic impact to North Philadelphia would be a tremendous benefit.
"Every time you get something that brings people in to North Philadelphia, spending money in North Philadelphia, 35,000 people, lets say 15,000 of them are students, that means 20,000 people come in to North Philadelphia to eat in North Philadelphia. They buy souvenirs in North Philadelphia. It creates a lot of jobs. So, yeah, it would be a plus."
He discounted the financial burden that would be placed on the school.
"Is it the best expenditure of money? When people try to debate that issue, understand that most of that $100 million would not be available to Temple for anything other than building a football stadium."
Rendell insisted the numerous positives that would result from the stadium far outweigh any negatives.
"It's football. There would probably be no more than six or seven home games a year. Temple will make that stadium available for high schools and stuff like that, but they don't get the big crowds. So, I think for six or seven Saturdays, the neighborhood could probably put up with some of the downside, but they'll get a lot of the upside."
