Well, it was a great idea while it lasted.
Approximately two weeks.
Former Temple football coach Wayne Hardin announced a couple of weeks ago, on the air with athletic director Bill Bradshaw, that he would personally spearhead a plan that would "guarantee" 66,000 fans in the seats for Temple's 2007 opening game with Navy.
The lynchpin of that plan was to move that game from Saturday, Sept. 1 to Thursday night, Aug. 30.
Hardin said on the air then that Bradshaw would "get to work" on moving the game on Monday.
Bradshaw has since ran into an old nemesis: The Philadelphia Eagles.
The Eagles are supposed to be "co-tenants" at Lincoln Financial Field with the Owls but treat the relationship more like a spoiled child, reluctant to share their new toy with their football younger brothers.
They made the Owls wait until two weeks before a scheduled 2003 opener with Villanova to even sign the stadium lease, creating a nightmare for both the Temple promotions and box office people. The Philadelphia Inquirer estimated that 10,000 fans walked home, rather than wait in long ticket lines that day. Still, the Owls and Wildcats drew 30,000 mostly irritated customers.
Now the Eagles have told Bradshaw to cool his jets because the Jets or some other NFL team might like to use that night for a meaningless pre-season exhibition game.
Temple needs close to a full year to promote the game to get the kind of crowd Hardin guaranteed. It needed the Thursday night prior to the Labor Day.
Wouldn't it be great to see a billboard on I95 and I76 with a photo of Hardin and Golden asking fans to set aside the night of Aug. 30, 2007 for Navy and the Owls?
Or a radio spot from Hardin asking for a "personal favor" from all Temple people to attend the game?
And even then most were highly skeptical that Hardin could pull off this ambitious task.
It was an admirable goal for someone who was head coach at both Navy and Temple.
"Temple has 250,000 alumni living in the Philadelphia area, 30,000 full-time students and about 10,000 of them living on campus," Hardin said. "There's no reason Temple can't get this done. If Temple put 66,000 in the seats, people around town might see that and think, 'Well, maybe Temple has something here.' "
He sold Bradshaw, who pledged to do whatever he could to help Hardin.
"When Wayne makes up his mind to do something, it's hard to say no to him," Bradshaw said.
Evidently, though, it's not hard for Jeffrey Lurie, the Eagles' owner to say no to Temple or Bradshaw.
At best, the Owls could get the night.
At best, they won't hear about it until around March 29, 2007. That's when the NFL is scheduled to release its preseason schedule.
The Eagles have told Bradshaw to cool his jets until then.
Bradshaw is looking into moving the game to Friday night or waiting for the Eagles.
Friday won't work because the Labor Day crowd has left for the shore and the Poconos by then.
Wednesday won't work because the NCAA won't allow teams to play before Thursday.
Thursday would work.
Would it draw 66,000?
Highly doubtful, but there's absolutely no shot at anywhere near that kind of crowd on Friday or Saturday.
Would it kill the Eagles to tell the NFL they don't want to play a home game that week, to reschedule it for the week before or the week after?
No, but taking the high road with a co-tenant is not something Jeffrey Lurie seems inclined to do.
Thanks, Jeffrey.
Thanks, as usual, for nothing.
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