Could the Ivy League Bring a Football Game to Allentown?

The Ivy League shocked college basketball fans yesterday by moving its basketball tournament to Allentown, Pennsylvania. The move is baffling and reeks of a significant payday for the league. Penn and Princeton are the closest Ivy League schools to Allentown, both over 60 miles from the city.

Although the basketball tournament invites only four of the conference’s schools, it is not unlikely that Harvard and Dartmouth fans would have to make over 300-mile trips on short notice. Furthermore, the move takes away the intimacy and modest nature of the previous campus site format of Ivy Madness.

Only time will tell whether the move pays off for the Ivy League. In the meantime, one can imagine how Allentown can get involved in hosting an Ivy League football game.

Realistically, Allentown is already an Ivy League destination. Lafayette and Lehigh are both fewer than 20 miles from Allentown and routinely host Ivy League schools in non-conference games. However, this article will focus on Allentown proper.

Allentown has one of the largest high school football stadiums in the country, J. Birney Crum Stadium. J. Birney Crum Stadium holds around 15,000 fans, a capacity on par with most Ivy League schools. More importantly, the stadium has a special place in college football history as the site of the 1962 Cement Bowl, later renamed the Eastern Bowl for its 1963 edition.

Despite these advantages, few Ivy League programs would be incentivized to move a home game from their large stadiums to a 15,000-seat high school stadium. Consequently, Allentown organizers would have to look to an Ivy League non-conference road game.

Bucknell is the strongest candidate for this. Bucknell is 115 miles from Allentown. The Bison struggle to draw in cavernous Christy Mathewson Memorial Stadium due to years of ineptitude. Allentown organizers would likely have the cheapest payout with Bucknell.

The Bison had poor turnouts for recent games against Ivy League foes. Penn brought only 2,046 people to Christy Mathewson Memorial Stadium in 2023, while Cornell drew an embarrassing crowd of 1,245. With adult tickets priced at $15 and Bucknell not charging for parking, the Bison made a maximum of $30,690 in the 2023 Penn game and $18,675 in ticket/parking revenue for the Cornell game.

Naturally, reduced prices for senior citizens and children, along with free tickets for students and faculty, make this an ambitious estimate. If Allentown wants to build buzz around the Ivy League tournament and sell Ivy League fanbases on the city, offering a payout to move an otherwise poorly attended Bucknell home game would be the easiest solution.

Monmouth is another option, being approximately 115 miles from Allentown. The Hawks play at tiny 4,200-seat Kessler Stadium, a venue better suited for the school’s NEC days than their current CAA tenure.

However, the Hawks would likely command a higher payout. Monmouth’s least expensive ticket is $12 more than Bucknell’s most expensive one. Furthermore, Monmouth’s most expensive ticket is $37 and the school charges $20 for parking. Monmouth has much more to lose than Bucknell and would thus be more difficult for Allentown officials to convince.

In the end, an Ivy League game in Allentown would be a wise advertising move for the basketball tournaments. The city would have to get creative in bringing this to fruition, but the possibilities are reasonable.