A consultant hired by the city to develop recommendations for increasing tourism to Temple says an urban arena and events venue similar to the PPL Center (above) in Allentown, Pa., could be built on redeveloped Temple Mall property. According to Rob Hunden of Hunden Strategic Partners, such a facility could be used for concerts and minor league sports. He said the facility would not duplicate events — rodeos and livestock shows — commonly held at The Bell County Expo Center. Courtesy photo

DAVID STONE | JULY 21, 2022

Rob Hunden, one of three consultants hired by the city to develop strategies for boosting tourism, said today Temple should consider building a 6,000 to 10,000 capacity minor league sports arena as part of Temple Mall redevelopment.

Hunden, president of Chicago-based Hunden Strategic Partners, was hired by the city to develop a “Placemaking Strategy” that provides recommendations to help Temple better capitalize on the tourism industry.

“The placemaking strategy is a document that informs and guides the city in regard to tourism,” Erin Smith, assistant Temple city manager, said following Hunden’s presentation to City Council earlier this month.

In a phone call today, Hunden said the city has the “opportunity to pursue sports tourism by expanding Crossroads Park” and building an urban arena on redeveloped Temple Mall property.

Currently, Crossroads includes four baseball fields, four softball fields, seven soccer fields, a multi-use field, six tennis courts, a 27-hole disc golf course, a playground and 1.4 miles of trails within the park.

Hunden’s proposal calls for doubling the number of baseball diamonds to eight, adding two additional softball diamonds and building a multi-court basketball complex.

The city hosts numerous athletic tournaments for participants of all ages, and these events bring in big tourism dollars. With more fields and the addition of the basketball complex, the city would be in position to host bigger, better and more frequent tournaments, Hunden said.

But one of Hunden’s biggest recommendations is the redevelopment of Temple Mall.

“The existing mall needs to come down,” he said. “There are so many positives to this site, including its proximity to Baylor Scott & White Medical Center and existing retail stores in the immediate area.”

“This could be so much more than what it is,” Hunden said. “It needs to be a go-to place — a Temple version of The Domain.”

“Upscale shops, chef-driven restaurants, residential townhomes and apartments, an indoor/outdoor lifestyle center — the possibilities are endless.”

Hunden said the centerpiece of the redeveloped property could be a mid-sized state-of-the-art arena to host concerts, minor league sports such as basketball and hockey, MMA fights and wrestling promotions.

“It would be a great regional draw,” Hunden said. “There would be no need to duplicate events held at the Bell County Expo Center. No need for a rodeo arena or facilities for ag shows — the Expo Center has that covered.”

“If you think about it, the Expo Center is the only mid-sized arena between the H-E-B Center in Cedar Park and Dallas,” he said. “There’s a big gap in the market, and if Temple doesn’t build one, Killeen or Waco will. Temple would be perfect, and there are many cities of this size in America with minor league teams.”

The mall property is currently owned by Kohan Retail Investment Group of Great Neck, New York. Dozens of attempts to reach a Kohan spokesperson over the past six months have gone unanswered.

Smith said the city has provided Hunden’s analysis and recommendations to Kohan.

Hunden also discussed the need for a full-service conference hotel in the Downtown area, and he emphasized that there is a definite difference between conference hotels and convention hotels.

“Typically, a convention hotel is a full-service hotel attached to a full service convention center,” he said. “Convention centers consist of exhibit space, ballrooms and breakout meeting rooms in a variety of sizes.”

“That’s not what I’m recommending for Downtown Temple,” he said. “A conference center typically doesn’t have the exhibit space, but they do have one or two large ballrooms and several breakout conference rooms.”

“Temple already has convention space at the Mayborn Center,” he said. “The Mayborn will need a lot of TLC, and we’ve made some recommendations for improvements and building a small hotel there.”

Despite not having exhibit space, a Downtown conference hotel still would take up at least a full city block, Hunden said. He added that several existing locations have been identified but said it usually is cheaper to build a new structure rather than modifying and adding on to an older building that part of an established block.

“I’m not sure there is an existing place that is large enough,” he said. “We want to bring in companies that want to use the center for training employees and holding conferences. We will need some space.”

“The Mayborn Center is geared more toward small social functions such as reunions, weddings, parties and fraternal gatherings, and these things tend to be more local. The Downtown center should capture the spending of guests.”

“Downtown is becoming quite walkable and there are many restaurants and a growing number of retail stores,” he said. “A conference hotel would be a major anchor for Downtown.”

Hunden touched on converting the Santa Fe Depot into a boutique hotel complete with rail cars outfitted as rooms. He said the Santa Fe’s current tenants — the Temple Railroad & Heritage Museum and the Amtrak station would likely remain as well.

“The museum would look different, but it would be cool to keep all of the train memorabilia on-site.”

Hunden also said Temple needs more big festivals and events to draw in out-of-town visitors.

One of the big draws could be a multi-day, multi-venue music festival. Temple has been home to music giants such as Little Joe, Johnny y La Familia; Clifford “Boots” Douglas; John Inmon; Stephen Fromholz; Scott Joplin; and David Zychek. And a growing number of talented musicians are calling Temple home today.

For decades, musicians moved to Austin because it was a cheap place to live and an easy place to land a gig. Times have changed — Austin still has tons of live music, but it has grown very expensive and many musicians are moving away from Austin’s core.

Musicians are moving to Central Texas and residing in areas such as Temple and Belton, but still playing at Austin clubs. An increasing number of local venues such as J Kowboy, O’Briens, Fire Base, Fire Street, Corky’s, Fox Dog, Green Door, Mo’s Railyard Saloon, Dead Fish Grill, Scores, Fuzzy’s, Bo’s Barn, Bold Republic, Barrow Brewing and more are bringing in live music several nights a week. As the number of venues grow — a handful are under way now and more are in the planning stages — so do the number of bands that are performing locally,

Temple College already puts on a huge Jazz Festival every year, and Hunden thinks that should be expanded into a citywide event.

“Music is a critical part of a tourism economy,” he said. “Just look at Austin and Nashville. Temple needs a big music festival — people love music, and a big music festival featuring different genres could put Temple on the music map.”

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Our Town Temple | July 21, 2022

Here’s a little tale from the 1800s that took place a few miles west of Temple. The story was originally told by MT Cox of Sparta.

For folks who are fairly new to Temple — maybe you just moved here 60 years ago — Sparta is no longer with us. The town, along with Bland, Brookhaven and several other communities, was flooded when the Leon River was dammed in 1954 to create Belton Lake.

Anyway, back to the story.

A man who later became a well-known Temple clockmaker was selling clocks around the county and stopped for the night at a home near Brookhaven. In the morning, he was told that he slept through an Indian raid.

The man hitched his horse to his buggy and hurriedly headed east. When he arrived at the Cox home near the mouth of Cowhouse Creek, he was standing erect in the buggy, yelling, “Indians, Indians … they will be here any minute.”

The Cox family didn’t appear to be overly concerned about this Paul Revere-style message.

Mr. Cox explained to the man that Indians were no longer in the county at this time. And, the band of marauders had already been apprehended.

The “Indians” had stolen 140 head of horses but were pursued and cornered. The bandits weren’t Native Americans at all. They had painted themselves as Indians in an attempt to escape blame.

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NOTE: The following “This Day in Texas History” has a Cameron connection.

On this day in 1944, Lawrence Aaron Nixon walked into the same El Paso polling place that had denied him his ballot twenty years before and voted in a Democratic primary. The black physician and voting rights advocate was born in Marshall, Texas, in 1884. He began medical practice in Cameron in Milam County. The lynching of a black man in Cameron in 1909 influenced Nixon to become a civil-rights advocate. In December of that year he moved to El Paso, where he established a successful medical practice, helped organize a Methodist congregation, voted in Democratic primary and general elections, and in 1910 helped to organize the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In 1923 the Texas legislature passed a law prohibiting blacks from voting in Democratic primaries. On July 26, 1924, with the sponsorship of the NAACP, Nixon took his poll-tax receipt to a Democratic primary polling place and was refused a ballot. Thus began a twenty-year struggle in which Nixon and his El Paso attorney, Fred C. Knollenberg, twice carried their case to the United States Supreme Court. It was not until the decision in Smith v. Allwright ended the white primary that the way was cleared, allowing Dr. Nixon to finally caste his primary ballot in El Paso.

¡Pleibol! In the Barrios and the Big Leagues

“Pleibol! In the Barrios and the Big Leagues” will be on exhibit at Temple Railroad & Heritage Museum through Oct. 8.

Moravian Glory: Preserving Our Brilliance

A new exhibit, Moravian Glory: Preserving Our Brilliance is open at the Czech Heritage Museum & Genealogy Center in Temple, and an official reception will be from 4 to 7 p.m. Saturday, July 30. The exhibit runs through Oct. 1

Thursday, July 21

• Texas Red’s Taproom Trivia at Fire Base Brewing. 7 p.m.

• Karaoke at Bo’s Barn. 8:30 p.m.

• Bell County Singles Meet & Greet 55+ at Corky’s. 4-6 p.m. RSVP to Linda Atkins at AtkinsFromTexas@yahoo.com.

• Trivia Night at Fire Street Pizza in Belton. There will be 6 rounds of themed trivia to test your knowledge of all things trivia! Other categories will include Movies, Sports, music, and more! Play from your phone! FREE to play! Join anytime. Winners walk away with FSP swag, free pizzas and bragging rights! 6 p.m.

• Pizza & Beer Pairings at FoxDog. Our friends at Bahler Street Pizza are taking over our taproom! Pizza by the slice paired with beer from our taps. The pairing will take place between 6-7 pm and will be ticketed. Then we'll open to the public from 7-9 pm and pizza will be available for purchase until sellout.

• Country Nights at El Puerto de Jalisco. Live music and great food and drinks. 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

• Dungeons & Dragons at Temple Public Library. 5 p.m.

Friday, July 22

• Dumpling Night Workshop at Cha Community, 7 N. Main in Downtown Temple. Due to popular demand, we are hosting a second dumpling night workshop this summer! You will learn to fold, cook and eat dumplings (pork or veggie options available — no gluten-free), side dishes and take a copy of our own recipe. Fun discussion about community/food, and enjoy our drinks! 6:30 to 8 p.m. $48 per person or $90 for parties of two. Order tickets online at: https://tinyurl.com/templedumplingnight

• A new Parkinson's support group is forming for Bell County area residents. The first BAPS meeting will be in the Wilson Room at the Sammons Community Center. We focus on learning from one another. On Thursday, July 28, you can join in a Webinar from the meeting room at Garden Estates of Temple from 2:30 until 5:00 PM. We'll join with the large Georgetown GAPS support group to learn about physical, occupational, and speech therapies for those with Parkinson's. Call or text Gayle Shull at 254.718.4197 for more information.

• Guys and Dolls at Temple Civic Theatre. A odd-ball romantic comedy directed by Dr. Sara Harris Baker.  For tickets and showtimes, visit https://templecivictheatre.com

• .4-Hour Temple Brew Trail Tour with Tour Temple. 6-10 p.m.

• Karaoke at Corky’s Beer & Wine. 8-11 p.m. Sing your heart out!

• Chess Club at Temple Public Library. 4-6 p.m.

• Ghost Hunting Class at Wilson Recreation Center. Do you have an interest in the paranormal? Ever wonder what it's like to be a real ghost hunter? Try our Paranormal Studies class with paranormal investigator JohnJohn from Dark Explorers paranormal and learn all there is about becoming a paranormal investigator. Join us for this introductory class. 5:30 p.m. to. 7 p.m. $35 per person.

• Summer Sounds Free Concert at Santa Fe Plaza. Hair Metal Giants. 7:30 p.m

• Martian Folk live at Barrow Brewing Co. 8 p.m.

• Dementia/Alzheimer's Caregiver Support Group: Occurs weekly on Fridays. This group allows your loved ones to join us.  Loved ones will be doing activities while the group of caregivers are joining together to better understand and learn tips and tricks for daily life. 

• Notoriously PG-13 Backyard Comedy Show at FoxDog. 8 p.m. Join us for a fun night of comedy in the beer garden at FoxDog! Host Alex Cunningham and features Tania Morales, James Garibay, Justin Moreno, and Connor King II are guaranteed to make you laugh. You won't want to miss it! This is a free, outdoor event

Saturday, July 23

• Brandon Rhyder live and acoustic at Cyclone Corral BBQ. $10.

• Temple Historic Homes Tour with Tour Temple. 2-4 p.m.

• 4-Hour Temple Wine Trail Tour with Tour Temple. 3-7 p.m.

• Guys and Dolls at Temple Civic Theatre. A odd-ball romantic comedy directed by Dr. Sara Harris Baker.  For tickets and showtimes, visit

  https://templecivictheatre.com

• Retro Party Name That Tune Bingo at Fire Base Brewing. 7:30 p.m. We're rewinding it back to the 80s, 90s & 00s! Lets see your best 80s & 90s outfits that you kept in your closet all these years! Special props to those who are feeling the vibes. $2 gets you started at 4 chances at drinks, prizes & brewery swag! Family friendly! Seats are first come first served so get here early.

• Comedy Showcase at Corky’s Beer & Wine. 8-10 p.m. Turn2 Entertainment's "Laredo Takeover" Comedy Showcase starts at 8pm! Grab your tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/377373673817

• Salado Legends, Tablerock Theatre. Salado Legends, is an outdoor musical written by Salado resident playwright Jackie Mills. It was chosen by the Library of Congress to serve as a record of life in America during the 1850’s and “to preserve our nation’s diverse cultural traditions for generations of Americans, present, and future. Meal: 7:15. Show, 8:15. Tickets: centraltexastickets.org

• Christmas in July at FoxDog Beer Garden. Because December shouldn’t have all the fun! 11 a.m.

• Maxx Carter live at Barrow Brewing. 8 p.m.

• Sip & Shop at Ras Kitchen. 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

• Historic Tour of Homes sponsored by Corky's and Tour Temple. Details and tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/306466829537

Sunday, July 24

• Martian Folk live at Fire Street Pizza in Belton. Noon.

• Guys and Dolls at Temple Civic Theatre. A odd-ball romantic comedy directed by Dr. Sara Harris Baker.  For tickets and showtimes, visit

  https://templecivictheatre.com

Monday, July 25

• Trash to Treasure Totes, Sammons Community Center. 1 p.m. Go green and create a unique tote bag from plastic bags! Becca Bash will be teaching this fun and creative way to recycle and reuse those endless plastic grocery bags. Knowledge of basic crochet stitch is encouraged. A size K crochet hook is recommended. For more information, call 254.298.5403. 

Tuesday, July 26

• O’Pen Mic Night at O’Briens Irish Pub. 8 to midnight. O'Briens Open Mic Is Back! Every Tuesday 8 p.m. This is an acoustic open mic. will be using our in house sound system! Come on out and let's have fun!

• Tai Chi at Sammons Community Center. 3 p.m. This ancient Chinese exercise and martial art promote vitality, balance, strength, and longevity. This on-going course is adaptable for all levels of mobility. Led by Christopher Dow, who has practiced this and related Chi Kung exercise forms for 42 years. For more information, call 254.298.5403.

• Academie Musique of Central Texas String Faculty Recital fundraiser, 7 p.m., Christ Episcopal Church Parish Hall, 300 N. Main in Temple.

Wednesday, July 27

• Open Mic Night at Fire Base Brewing featuring Maxx Carter.

• Through My Eyes art exhibit at The Loft. 6-8 p.m. Paintings, sculptures, poems, photos that focus on a person in the Temple/Belton area and it reflects their true beauty and worth. Presented by Feed My Sheep.

• Lunch at the Airport! Flexin’ Texan food truck will be at Draughon-Miller Central Texas Regional Airport from 11 am. To 2 p.m.