Amid an accelerating stadium boom around the NFL, the defending Super Bowl champion Eagles are taking further steps to determine their own facility future.
The Eagles have sent an email survey to their season-ticket holders, looking to gauge their opinions on what the team’s future home venue should be and how best to maximize fan experience.
“We’re exploring potential updates to Lincoln Financial Field—including both renovations options and the possibility of a brand new stadium in the region,” the email reads in part.
The effort follows comments from Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie before Super Bowl LIX in which he said the team’s stadium deliberations were beginning to amplify. The city-owned Lincoln Financial Field opened in 2003, and while still quite functional, is beginning to fall behind newer and more technologically advanced facilities such as SoFi Stadium in California and Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. The Eagles’ current lease expires in 2032.
In particular, the Eagles are grappling with whether to build a domed facility, and the fan survey explored several options ranging from fully open-air venues to entirely closed domes and those in between, such as a canopy.
“I love outdoor football. I love the cold games,” Lurie said in February. “On the other hand, Philadelphia deserves to host the Super Bowl, NCAA Final Four, lots of great events. It’s an incredible sports city. Does it deserve it? Yes. So we have to balance all those things.”
League and Local Developments
While keeping up with the Cowboys and their owner, Jerry Jones, is always front and center for the Eagles, given their heated division rivalry, the growing wave of other new NFL facilities, as well as other local developments, more directly colors the situation in Philadelphia.
New or substantially renovated NFL venues are already on the way in Buffalo, Jacksonville, and Tennessee, while the Commanders and Browns have made material steps in recent weeks on their respective projects, and the Chiefs are looking to decide in the coming months between stadium options in Missouri and Kansas. The Bears’ push for a domed facility, while currently stalled, is certainly not dead, and the Broncos are in a similarly deliberative position as the Eagles.
Elsewhere in the South Philadelphia sports complex, meanwhile, Comcast Spectacor and Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment intend to develop an arena they foresee as “unlike any other in sports.” Neighboring Citizens Bank Park, meanwhile, will host next year’s MLB All-Star Game, a key part of a heightened wave of top-tier events scheduled for the complex.
Any renovation or new construction project that the Eagles undertake might happen without any state-level financial support, though. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro recently said he’s “very worried about the overall budget” and that his priority is on “investing in things that Pennsylvanians need most.”
