Houston Bowl may go bye-bye

[MeanGreen61]

Houston Chronicle article.

April 19, 2006, 1:04AM

Houston Bowl may shut down

Lack of money, poor attendance could doom game

By JOSEPH DUARTE

Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

Strapped by financial problems and waning attendance, the Houston Bowl could cease operations as early as next week, a college football official said Tuesday.

The 6-year-old bowl is currently without a sponsor, and the Big 12 and Mountain West conferences have yet to receive the full payout of $1.2 million each for participating in last year's game.

The 28 bowls are scheduled to be reviewed by the NCAA bowl sub-committee as part of the renewal process next week. The Houston Bowl is currently in talks with its current partners. But if a majority of the bowl's problems are not resolved by then, the Houston Bowl is unlikely to be renewed, and this year's game would not be held, the college football official said on the condition of anonymity.

"The clock is ticking," the official said. "Nobody wants to see the Houston Bowl go through what happened with the Bluebonnet Bowl, (which ended in 1987). You would hate to see Houston out of the (bowl) mix."

FULL ARTICLE

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/3803358.html

[Eagle1855]

sounds pretty inevitable at this point. (at least thats the way it sounded on 610 this morning here in town) no sponsor has stepped up, no money to pay out.

[meangreen11]

We should move the New Orleans Bowl there and take it over! Get Mattress Mack to fund it!

[MeanGreen61]

We should move the New Orleans Bowl there and take it over!  Get Mattress Mack to fund it!

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Edited April 19, 2006 by MeanGreen61

[VideoEagle]

We should move the New Orleans Bowl there and take it over!  Get Mattress Mack to fund it!

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Let’s not.

[NTEagle08]

disappointing that this bowl may fold. Reliant Stadium is probably the nicest place to see a football game in the whole country. Surprised that attendence would be cited as a problem considering that they got over 50,000 in 2003 and 2002 for the bowl games with Tech and OSU, and got about 35,000 last year for the TCU game. Sponsorship is the one and only reason why this bowl game will go under.

[Quoner]

We should move the New Orleans Bowl there and take it over!  Get Mattress Mack to fund it!

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I could go to Houston INSTEAD of New Orleans? AND Mattress Mac would be involved?

Marv Albert says YES!

(And then he bites me on the back)

[NTEagle08]

We should move the New Orleans Bowl there and take it over!  Get Mattress Mack to fund it!

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Mattress Mac has already sponsered the Houston Bowl back when it was the Galleryfurniture.com Bowl. He then realized it didn't make much sense for him to have a national internet futuniture shipping site. Also he didn't want to pony up the money to increase the bowl payout.

[LoveMG]

Sponsorship is the one and only reason why this bowl game will go under.

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the new orleans bowl has no sponsor now either. i say move the houston bowl to denton and fouts, it may be the only way we get a big 12 or mwc team in fouts.

[Baby Arm!]

"The Houston Bowl has been plagued by poor attendance throughout its history, averaging 41,276 for the six games. Last year's game between Iowa State and TCU drew 37,286 and the Colorado-UTEP game in 2004 drew only 27,235, the smallest in its history.

The Houston Bowl has twice drawn crowds in excess of 50,000 — in 2001 for a game featuring Texas A&M and TCU and for the 2003 game with Texas Tech and Navy."

Then New Orleans Bowl can only dream of attendance like this. And with no sponser anymore since Wyndham is out.....this may be the future of the New Orleans Bowl too. Only thing keeping the New Orleans Bowl going is they've been paying the miniumum 750,000 payout. And the NCAA will have sympathy post Katrina and grant an exception in the certification process. But if attendance and sponsorship opportunities don't improve this year....Expect to be reading about the death of the New Orleans Bowl sooner rather than later.