Temple

Temple Will Allow City Officials to Use Liacouras Center for Hospital Overflow

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Mar 27th, 2020 · 1:30 PM EDT

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Great idea.

This comes via a press conference Mayor Kenney is holding right now:

https://twitter.com/jblumgart/status/1243584503253282817?s=20

This doesn’t mean anything right now, but it’s an agreement between Temple and the city to use the arena if necessary. Theoretically, you could do something similar with La Salle (Gola Arena), Penn (The Palestra), Drexel (the DAC), or St. Joe’s (Hagan), even though those are smaller arenas. If the Wells Fargo Center is still shut down, you might as well get Comcast on the phone and talk about using that jawn, too. There are a bunch of concert halls that could serve as overflow COVID-19 centers as well.

The Inquirer is also reporting, via Anna Orso and Laura McCrystal, that the convention center could also be in play:

John McNichol, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Convention Center, said they continue to have conversations with the city regarding the use of the space, but no decisions have been made.

“Our focus is on getting back to business as soon as possible so we can save jobs,” he said.

In terms of being used as a hospital overflow space, McNichol said: “We’re trying to be as nimble as possible. Right now there’s no plan to use the Convention Center for that purpose.”

At least these discussions are taking place. Maybe Hahnemann comes back into play as well. Who knows.