Jump to content

Why don’t we have a bowl game in Austin?


El Moco

Recommended Posts

It can be called The Lone Star Bowl sponsored by Dell or the Keep Austin Weird Bowl.  Austin has the stadium, the hotels, the entertainment venues and the fans willing to support it.  I know some will say we have too many bowls already, but with the increased number of FBS football schools, teams will be available.  Just an idea.

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Fuck You 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, lemonandaturd said:

I don't want any bowl eligible college football teams playing each other in DKR in front of potential recruits.

This right here.

It's bad enough that outsiders get to use Jerryworld and NRG.  Let's not have them showing off in front of the Westlake and Lake Travis kids in our stadium.  

Plus, those of us who live here don't need Game Day traffic in the hotels and on the roads, clogging up our night spots, and all that crap.  Do we really need another Texas Relays, ACL, ROT Rally type of weekend in town?  Nope, we sure as shit don't.

Edited by TexArcher
  • Hook 'Em 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

They want to use Q2 stadium.  Average 3rd tier bowl game gets about 20-25k attendees.  Works out well since that's what Q2 holds (depending on SRO/club area configurations.    Only trouble is they've got to figure out how to remove those photography/support staff bays on each of the long ends to make the field 120 yards (it's currently 115 yards).  And then literally remove the first two rows of seats (just bolts, half-dozen guys could have it done in a matter of hours) on the long ends of the pitch.  Figure out how to affix goalposts and pad the shit outta those walls.  And then on either side of the goalposts, you could have a bay for photography, guy with extra footballs, security, etc.  Also a challenge on where ESPN affixes all the video cameras since the usual platforms aren't in ideal spots.  But if they can broadcast a hoops game from the deck of an aircraft carrier or football at Fenway Park, or hockey at Wrigley---they can easily figure out all this.

There are plenty of massive corporations here that would make ideal title sponsors (whether Austin is their HQ or at least a substantial presence).  And no shortage of 2nd & 3rd line sponsors.  The Domain hotels probably couldn't handle that amount of fans.  So CapMetro finally steps up and actually puts asses on multiple trains running every 15 minutes between the downtown station and the Q2 stop.  Enough hotels within a few blocks of the downtown station to fill up Q2 by itself.  Plus most, not all, but most fans will want to stay downtown.  

If you've ever spent multiple days before in a city before a horns bowl game, you know the teams are invited out to do shit almost every single day for the ~7-10 days leading up to the game.  Fans are often invited to a handful of those events/meals out as well.  If only Austin had a long list of fun shit to see 'n do, we could make a week of it.  and yes, it'll be December.  But most bowl games are and they still find fun shit to do.  If Mobile, Birmingham, Albuquerque, Frisco, Fort Worth, Shreveport, Detroit, Montgomery, Baltimore, Memphis, Charlotte, El Paso, Jacksonville, and Tucson can attract 25,000 fans and some decent teams to enjoy a fun time in their cities in early Winter...pretty sure Austin can pull it off.  

Why haven't we done it yet?  There was no Q2 stadium yet.  DKR-TMS is a non-starter.  Plus Austin Sports Commission and Adler's office dragged their feet on this for years.  

They'll be one by decades end, third tier to start.  Hard to say what kind of conferences would be aligned.  Proximity #1.  But you gotta wait for the clusterfuck realignment of teams shaking out the next few years before you can even think about courting some conference partners.  Meantime, more bowl games will go defunct so one could easily move here.  But I'll stop now and wait for the inevitable 3 pages of "we have too many bowl games" from the "Yeah, i watch pre-season NFL...I spent all that money flying to Las Vegas for my fantasy administrator draft so I gotta see how my team looks."  crowd...

  • Hook 'Em 2
  • Fuck You 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm with you on avoiding another clusterfuck weekend.  But we've had ACL and UT home games on the same weekend many times.  we've had UT and USGP-Cota events on the same days.  ROT rally does literally clog up our roads for several days, but that's unfortunately the whole point of their festival to drive loudly on our roads.  And a lot of that shit happens on otherwise nice weather weekends when we can't get around our own town.  That does suck.

But you're telling me we can't suck it up and host an event on a random Tuesday in late December for 20,000 visitors---a crowd that would fit in one corner of all the big events you just mentioned.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, JesusSweatDuck said:

Are there any bowls played in university owned stadiums? I can't think of any unless it's the farmersonly.com tractor pull bowl

That's one reason UT wouldn't do it.  The recruiting thing is another.  The couple times they teased it out, the money they'd get back for prepping the stadium and wear 'n tear wasn't nearly enough to make it worthwhile.  I mean yeah, it's 25% of our capacity but you can't just turn on 25% of the stadium lights.  Liability shit is another.  Branding dilution (though Hartzell is more open to this kinda stuff, but the other stuff makes it a non-starter).  

But to answer your question...there are only a handful that sorta meet that criteria but they're not totally university owned on university soil.  Like UNLVs Allegiant Stadium (I think they just rent it out for their home games before it's turned over for the bowl game).  

S. Alabama does own and operate that campus stadium they use for the Mobile Bowl.  Same for UNM's "University Stadium", Boise State, FAU Stadium for the Boca Bowl, TCU's Fort Worth Bowl, LA Tech's for Independence, SMU's Bowl, UTEP's Sun Bowl.  There's about 15 overall.  But none of them have the same issues/costs we do.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 minutes ago, JesusSweatDuck said:

Are there any bowls played in university owned stadiums? I can't think of any unless it's the farmersonly.com tractor pull bowl

Armed Forces Bowl at TCU

First Responders Bowl at SMU

Potato Bowl at Boise State

Sun Bowl at UTEP

Arizona Bowl at UA

Boca Raton Bowl at FAU

Myrtle Beach Bowl at Coastal Carolina

New Mexico Bowl at UNM

In addition to a bunch of games played at pro stadiums that are shared by a college, and the Rose Bowl which I assume is not owned by UCLA but is their home stadium.

Only two at a P5 stadium, but not many P5 schools are in larger urban areas. But my guess is that an Austin Bowl would be at the MLS stadium. I’ve wanted a bowl game at Tulsa’s stadium for years. Everyone gets a bowl now, might as well use our city too.

 

Edited by 'stache
  • Hook 'Em 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, TexArcher said:

Sure, but like 3k or 4k of those 20k are gonna come here, love it, and move here.

And I don't like most people.

Bah humbug.

 

Yeah, that's a distinct possibility.  

I remember going to SXSW all-out in the late 2000's.  And late at night almost every night, when everybody was shitfaced, people from all over the country...and the world would put their arm around you and shout, "Your town is so fucking awesome, I'm gonna move here this summer and it's gonna be fucking awesome!"  And I chalked it up to alcohol and good times.  And then I woke up about 5 years ago...and most of them actually followed through with their pledge. 

  • Hook 'Em 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, 'stache said:

Armed Forces Bowl at TCU

First Responders Bowl at SMU

Potato Bowl at Boise State

Sun Bowl at UTEP

Arizona Bowl at UA

Boca Raton Bowl at FAU

Myrtle Beach Bowl at Coastal Carolina

New Mexico Bowl at UNM

In addition to a bunch of games played at pro stadiums that are shared by a college, and the Rose Bowl which I assume is not owned by UCLA but is their home stadium.

Only two at a P5 stadium, but not many P5 schools are in larger urban areas. But my guess is that an Austin Bowl would be at the MLS stadium. I’ve wanted a bowl game at Tulsa’s stadium for years. Everyone gets a bowl now, might as well use our city too.

 

Rose Bowl is owned by the city of Pasadena 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, Slacks said:

What am I missing?

TexArcher brings up a good point that's been whispered around Belmont in years past.  You're from one of the big 2 high schools in the area or one of other half dozen we still actively recruit.  Friend calls you up and says, "We're on holiday break, wanna go to DKR and watch the bowl game?"  You'd organically have 100 local high school football players showing up in our stadium on our campus watching two teams that aren't ours.  It's not a huge issue to worry about, but it's an issue.  

Then again, didn't seem to bother TCU last few fucking years.  Shit, maybe we should play two bowl games at DKR.  

but yeah, look at that list of bowls played in college owned/on-campus stadiums.  Most aren't terribly recruiting rich locations.  So it's a nothing-burger to them.  But for a handful, it may present an issue every once in awhile.  Plus, the third tier bowl teams that may come to Austin, we're not gonna be competing with them for recruits but for some once-in-a-half-decade game when some P5 program slips down or the bowl game itself gets bumped up in the selection order.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, JesusSweatDuck said:

Are there any bowls played in university owned stadiums? I can't think of any unless it's the farmersonly.com tractor pull bowl

Yeah I can't think of any either. This is the main reason. 

But like Lobo said you could play one at Q2. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, 'stache said:

Armed Forces Bowl at TCU

First Responders Bowl at SMU

Potato Bowl at Boise State

Sun Bowl at UTEP

Arizona Bowl at UA

Boca Raton Bowl at FAU

Myrtle Beach Bowl at Coastal Carolina

New Mexico Bowl at UNM

In addition to a bunch of games played at pro stadiums that are shared by a college, and the Rose Bowl which I assume is not owned by UCLA but is their home stadium.

Only two at a P5 stadium, but not many P5 schools are in larger urban areas. But my guess is that an Austin Bowl would be at the MLS stadium. I’ve wanted a bowl game at Tulsa’s stadium for years. Everyone gets a bowl now, might as well use our city too.

 

Yeah but none of those are big time programs (I mean TCU kind of is I guess) and none of those stadiums seat more than 50k.

There's nothing analogous to something like DKR hosting a bowl. Yes UCLA plays at the Rose Bowl but it isn't on their campus, they don't own it, and it wasn't built for UCLA to play football games there. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Slacks said:

What am I missing?

You seriously have no issue with other schools coming in and showing off for all the D1 studs that made up this years 7-5 Lake Travis squad? Or anyone from the Westlake team that got skullfucked by North Shore in the semis? Those are all can’t-miss players that will surely be swayed in their decision by watching one third rate bowl game in Austin. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, JesusSweatDuck said:

Are there any bowls played in university owned stadiums? I can't think of any unless it's the farmersonly.com tractor pull bowl

Armed Forces Bowl. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There's a Minot Bol/South Austin's Mom joke in here somewhere about lasting one minute in her bowl.  I dunno.  

and god no, please nobody even float the idea of a bowl game out at COTA.  First off, nobody's gonna fund a buildout.  But say Musk gets drunk/high and decides he'll pay for the buildout and sponsor it (Tesla or spaceX).  Say they even get up one day to tier 2 status (50k fans or so).  Look at the utter and complete shitshow getting to/from U.S.G.P. is and that's COTA trying their level best to support logistics/concessions/etc.  That's their A-team/A-plan.  Even if they agreed to host a bowl out there, they'd send the D-team and we'd have 10,000 Central Michigan fans stranded out there for days after trying to walk towards the sunrise.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, JesusSweatDuck said:

Are there any bowls played in university owned stadiums? I can't think of any unless it's the farmersonly.com tractor pull bowl

TCU and SMU and Boise and UNM and FAU and CCU and Navy and UTEP and maybe think harder.

Edited by Beau Vine
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, 'stache said:

Armed Forces Bowl at TCU

First Responders Bowl at SMU

Potato Bowl at Boise State

Sun Bowl at UTEP

Arizona Bowl at UA

Boca Raton Bowl at FAU

Myrtle Beach Bowl at Coastal Carolina

New Mexico Bowl at UNM

In addition to a bunch of games played at pro stadiums that are shared by a college, and the Rose Bowl which I assume is not owned by UCLA but is their home stadium.

Only two at a P5 stadium, but not many P5 schools are in larger urban areas. But my guess is that an Austin Bowl would be at the MLS stadium. I’ve wanted a bowl game at Tulsa’s stadium for years. Everyone gets a bowl now, might as well use our city too.

 

Hawaii Bowl is at UH Manoa campus now that Aloha Stadium has been condemned.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I though you lived overseas?  
i guess the Ubers and maybe some shuttle busses will jam up the roads for the Wednesday before Christmas or whatever.  But shit, can’t be any worse than the traffic near my house during trail of lights.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, YGIFS said:

I though you lived overseas?  
i guess the Ubers and maybe some shuttle busses will jam up the roads for the Wednesday before Christmas or whatever.  But shit, can’t be any worse than the traffic near my house during trail of lights.  

We cannot all live in Austin is what I think he is saying. No more Bowls. Most Suck. 

Edited by InkaUtexas
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I see.  He neg reps the weirdest posts. 
 

anyway, it’s of cold comfort but such a bowl here would almost assuredly be moved from another current one/replace that one.  While it would make traffic in north Austin a shitshow for a day, at least it won’t add to bowl clutter.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



×
×
  • Create New...