[NU Sports] B-C-MESS!!! B-C-MESS!!!

[Beamsley, Jeff]

I agree that the bowl "formula" seems to work in just about anywhere
that you have an available stadium, some civic-minded people, available
holiday hotel space, and some sponsorship.

The Motor City Bowl, for example, has been going strong for 10 years.
So even though they have a cold weather location in a "third world" city
and didn't have a BT team this year, they still drew over 40K.  They
lost Chrysler as a sponsor and added the Carpenter's Union.  The group
that runs it is headed up by George Perles and Ken Hoffman (both from
MSU).  When asked this year about sponsorship, Perles said that they had
other organizations lined up to step in if Ford and/or GM left.  

Jeff


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From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com]
On Behalf Of Eric West
Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 12:44 PM
To: nwu-sports at tssi.com
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] B-C-MESS!!! B-C-MESS!!!

People have been making predictions like this for years and years, and
they have never come true. I remember being told in the 1990s that 18
bowls were "too many" and that the number would go down soon for
economic reasons, etc., etc. Guess what? Now there are almost twice as
many.

Obviously there is a ceiling (and we must be getting close to it, since
many bowls are forced to choose MAC or Sun Belt teams as at-large
selections because those are the only eligible teams left), and the
current economy may have an impact, but even that crisis is only "for
now." Plenty of bowls have died over the years only to be replaced by
two or three others. Other bowls lose the sponsorship of one corporation
only to gain the sponsorship of another one. (Oh, and Citicorp and GM
are primarily taking "heat" for things completely unrelated to their
sponsorship choices, but that's a topic equally unrelated to this
list...)

Getting back to the context of this discussion, if a minor bowl is
financially viable, it will be viable no matter what the top 4 or 8 or
16 teams in the country are doing elsewhere. There's simply nothing in
reality to suggest that a playoff would kill the minor bowls.


Eric West
e-west at northwestern.edu


johnadeg at comcast.net wrote:
> The so-called minor bowls are likely to die off as corporations cut
back on their  spending.  Look at the heat that CitiCorp and GM are
taking for their sports sponsorship.  Companies don't like unfavorable
publicity so others will drop their sponsorships of sporting events
rather than be criticized for spending on sports events..
>
> John DeGroat
>   

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