Miami Beach bowl moving to Frisco

[UNTFan23]

10 hours ago, wardly said:

Well time flies! I didn't realize they bought the stadium in 01', and you are right, the must not have a say in who plays in Sun Bowl game. Regarding "on campus", I went a Sun Bowl game in the 90's and I remember the stadium being up in the hills and not seeing anything around it, especially a campus.

I'm not sure bought it the correct term. I wonder if it was a similar situation where the university took over a management contract much like UNT did with the golf course where Apogee, Athletic Center, and Tennis complex all sit.

[VideoEagle]

Here's what Wiki says about the stadium.

The Sun Bowl is an outdoor football stadium, on the campus of the University of Texas at El Paso. It is home to the UTEP Miners of Conference USA, and the late December college football bowl game, the Hyundai Sun Bowl. The stadium was opened in 1963 and has a current seating capacity of 51,500.

The land on which the stadium sits was originally donated by the university to El Paso County, Texas, who built the stadium for the school and the Sun Bowl game. Both had previously used Kidd Field, the school's current track and field stadium, which only seats 15,000. The city had realized that the game could not expand its audience or the list of teams that it could invite without a bigger stadium, so the Sun Bowl was built in a natural bowl lying to the west of the old stadium. The AstroPlay playing field runs nearly north–south (tilted about 10° NW-SE) and is at an elevation of 3910 feet (1191 m) above sea level.

[TIgreen01]

Anybody got a link to back up the 30k seat claims for Toyota stadium.  That place seats something like 21k now and they are removing seats for the Hall of Fame expansion, not adding.  As far as I know...

[wardly]

UTEP via The State of Texas purchased the Sun Bowl in 2001, and while it is on the campus it is quite a hike . Regarding Toyota Stadium, Frisco in putting $39 million into renovations but I find no mention of seating expansion. They had to scale back because bid came in higher than anticipated , so perhaps increased seating was eliminated. While it currently has seating for 20,500, FC Dallas will shrink venue to between 16,000 and 17,000 for soccer.

[UNTexas]

4 hours ago, TIgreen01 said:

Anybody got a link to back up the 30k seat claims for Toyota stadium.  That place seats something like 21k now and they are removing seats for the Hall of Fame expansion, not adding.  As far as I know...

They are removing seats. The construction is the south end of the field above seating. I was just at a game there. They are adding the National Hall of Fame, bars, luxury boxes, all above seating get that was only temporarily removed for construction. It's a great stadium now and will be a much nicer after construction is completed. There are some renderings on the video on the link.

https://www.fcdallas.com/post/2015/10/14/fc-dallas-unveils-plans-39-million-toyota-stadium-project-including-national-soccer

The FCS National Championship games have been a great environment and really fun.

[southsideguy]

On 4/24/2017 at 11:15 AM, MeanGreenMailbox said:

Based on this photo of a Miami Beach Bowl game, they don't need 20k:

I've said for many years that we should have a bowl game at Apogee, like TCU, New Mexico, UTEP, Boise, etc.  The idea was always pooh-poohed.

So, along comes Frisco - with a smaller stadium - and grabs a bowl game.  Fancy that.

in this picture tell me the bowl game isn't being played.  The attendance looks like 11

[Arkstfan]

11 minutes ago, southsideguy said:

in this picture tell me the bowl game isn't being played.  The attendance looks like 11

Should have played at FIU. They are used to it.

[MeanGreenMailbox aka TFLF]

3 hours ago, southsideguy said:

in this picture tell me the bowl game isn't being played.  The attendance looks like 11

Yes, it was being played. 

https://twitter.com/ByTimReynolds/status/810931439516745728/photo/1

https://twitter.com/DavidJNeal/status/810931413679804416/photo/1

I think Frisco can probably get more than this, no matter who plays.  In these photos, it was Tulsa versus Central Michigan.  Tulsa surely would have drawn more to Frisco. 

I would be shocked if there were more than a dozen people at the 2016 Miami Beach Bowl who were not family of the players or coaches.

3 hours ago, Arkstfan said:

Should have played at FIU. They are used to it.

And, here we sit in a conference with FIU. 

In a way, I can't blame them.  I've been to Miami.  I've been on the FIU campus.  There is much more to do in Miami on a Saturday afternoon than watch the likes of FIU football.  And, the campus ain't that great.  It's like an overgrown community college.

Honestly, as much as I hate the thought of being tied back in with Texas State, the games would certainly have more draw than UNT-FIU ever did.  Some of the best college drunks I ever knew went to Southwest Texas State.  We had a lot in common with them back in the day. 

Wrap that rascal and break out the penicillin, we're headed to San Marcos!

[Matt from A700]

I love this move. The beaches in Frisco are so much better than Miami.

[wardly]

That's why Jimmy Buffet returns every year.

[MeanGreenMailbox aka TFLF]

21 hours ago, wardly said:

That's why Jimmy Buffet returns every year.

And, sells it out.  It's not a bad venue.  And, better for G5 schools for a bowl.  Packing 20-30k in there won't make a 70-90k seat stadium look empty. 

So, I guess they'll make that north area where the concert stages are set into temporary seats.  Or, go permanent bowl, and have the stage set into it and the field for future shows.

[untjim1995]

1 hour ago, MeanGreenMailbox said:

And, sells it out.  It's not a bad venue.  And, better for G5 schools for a bowl.  Packing 20-30k in there won't make a 70-90k seat stadium look empty. 

So, I guess they'll make that north area where the concert stages are set into temporary seats.  Or, go permanent bowl, and have the stage set into it and the field for future shows.

I think most G5 bowls and some p5 bowls would be well served by using smaller venues, especially games between teams that aren't located near the locale of the bowl.