[NU Sports] Home bowl games & attendance

[wildelk2 at aol.com]

?? Stephen and List Friends,

?? That's one thing I never understood until there were too many bowls and the bowls know one thing and one thing only: $.? They BS us?into thinking that they care about the local economy, filling rooms, blah blah blah, then they fall all over each other trying to gret a "home" team to play in their bowl for selling tickets sake.? The Motor City Bowl could care less that Central Michigan's fans drive in for the day and home after the game.? 
?? The only answer is the NCAA will grow a pair and say "enough" and not re-certify, let's say (6) bowls, then we'd see more neutrality and 6-6 teams at home, which should now be a prerequisite with a 12 game schedule. (a winning, not a .500 record).
?? Stephen: good work on those attendance figures.? The Motor City Bowl was the first game I watched; the schedule was light last night, and it appeared that Ford Field was 1/3 empty, so still a decent cwowd of 40,000 I'd say.??
?? 
?? later, Eric


-----Original Message-----
From: SjT (Stephen J. Truog) <sjtruog at yahoo.com>
To: nwu-sports at romaine.tssi.com
Sent: Fri, 26 Dec 2008 5:37 pm
Subject: [NU Sports] Home bowl games & attendance



In this overstuffed Christmas stocking of coal, er bowl games, I thought I'd 
look at how the home teams are doing. 

Despite the ESPN company line of reason #872 that we should love the bowls being 
that they are neutral sites and ways to determine conference supremacy (SEC! 
SEC! SEC! Ah go choke on it and call me when you venture outside Dixie for a 
game!:) ) ... there seem to be a LOT of home bowl games this year, more than 
usual.

It's interesting in a couple respects (these half-empty bowl games on TV for 
one), but for NU fans, we always hear that we're passed over because the Citrus 
committee or Outback folk want someone who will "fill the hotel rooms" in 
addition to the stands. So going with a home team is a bit of a risk since they 
only fill one of those. 

Anyway, the 2008 home bowls ...

* NAVY in Eagle Bowl: Home team lost, attendance 28,777
* SOUTH FLORIDA in St. Pete Bowl: Win / 25,205 in the stands
* SOUTHERN MISS in New Orleans Bowl: Win / 30,197 in attendance
* HAWAII in Hawaii Bowl: Loss / 43,487 officially (a bit generous?)

The non-home bowls aren't doing so well either (34,628 in San Diego for the only 
decent bowl game so far with Boise State and TCU?), but these are stadiums well 
more than half empty (except Hawaii, which was just about half empty - for Notre 
frickin' Dame, mother of all bowl draws if you listen to TV folk) for HOME 
games.

Other home bowls coming up (all of 'em this weekend!) ...

* CENTRAL MICHIGAN in the Motor City Bowl
* NORTH CAROLINA in the Carcare Bowl (may still be outnumbered by WV fans)
* FLORIDA STATE in the Champpppps Bowl
* CALIFORNIA in the Walnut Bowl
* LA TECH in the Independence Bowl
* RICE in the Texas Bowl
* VANDERBILT in the Music City Bowl
* GEORGIA TECH in the Peach Bowl (no home date for the title for LSU this year, 
and they actually have to go on the road ... a bit)
* USC in the Rose Bowl (yet again)
* TEXAS TECH in the Cotton Bowl (a bit of a stretch given the size of Texas)
* BUFFALO in the International Bowl (hey, if it's home for the B
ills ...)
* FLORIDA in the "Title" Bowl (yet again, a virtual home date for the top prize)

No place like home for the holidays in the grand tradition of bowls, eh?

GO CATS!!!
-SjT

* * * * * * * * *
STEPHEN J. TRUOG
sjtruog at yahoo.com
GO CATS!!!



      

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