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PHILADELPHIA EAGLES
National Football League

Eagles will give the Linc $125M in improvements

Staff report
USA TODAY Sports
General view of Lincoln Financial Field.
  • Lincoln Financial Field will get WiFi%2C more seats and better access among its improvements

Are the Philadelphia Eagles improving Lincoln Financial Field for their fans, or getting on line for a possible Super Bowl bid? Both.

The team announced Sunday that the 10-year-old Linc will receive a $125 million facelift over the next two years -- all private funds -- and the project will include seat expansion, WiFi, salutes to the franchise's history throughout the building and infrastructure for better access and foot traffic.

With the NFL planning its first open-air, cold-weather Super Bowl in the Meadowlands in February, other cold-weather franchises are hoping it goes without a hitch. If the staging of the game is successful, several cold-weather teams without domes are expected to ask the league to be considered for future Super Bowls.

But first, the stadiums -- even the relatively young Linc -- must be brought to technology's cutting edge.

Team president Don Smolenski said the improvements are being made after a survey of fans.

"We have had discussions with season ticket holders over the past couple of seasons to find out what was important to them," Smolenski said via the team's web site. "The revitalization of Lincoln Financial Field that will take place over the next two years is a direct result of those conversations. Our main goal when we began this project was to dramatically enhance the game-day experience for our fans."

The Eagles are following the trend in the NFL to to enrich the game-day experience in order to hold onto fans who could decide to watch the game from their couches instead of laying out thousands of dollars for personal seat licenses and season tickets.

The Linc will add 1,600 seats, but total seating will remain under 70,000 to preserve intimacy.

"All along we've felt there are things we'd love to do (to the stadium)," Eagles owner Jeffrey Laurie said via the web site. "We already have a great stadium, but we want to improve on that. We figured out what the fans want. We spent time interviewing a lot season ticket-holders and lots of fans. We wanted to listen and we were up to whatever we heard.

"We already have a stadium that we're proud of, but there are things we can do to make it more special. Lots of things have changed in the past 10 years -- high def, audio, WiF. The world is turning to use tablets and mobile devices. We can make the game-day experience spectacular."

But, in the end, it comes down to a possible Super Bowl:

"We're going to watch that very carefully," Lurie said, via PhillyBurbs.com. "I'm sure we've all been at phenomenal football games outside in December and January. So, absolutely, root for a decent-weather day in New York and New Jersey, and we think we've got a great city here to host it, a great stadium, and I'm sure others feel the same way."

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