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Say good-bye to the Peach Bowl. It's officially gone now. No, the game will still be played, but the name will forever go from the "Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl" to just the "Chick-Fil-A" Bowl. This from the Peach Bowl president:
"To get our bowl into this position has been our goal since we started these talks with Chick-fil-A," said Gary Stokan, the bowl's president. "Yes, we say goodbye to 38 years of tradition with the Peach Bowl. But we believe — and our board of directors agreed — that there are going to be opportunities out there for us in the future, and this puts us in good position to take advantage of those opportunities."
Yes, as a matter of fact, you do say goodbye to 38 years of tradition for the opportunity at corporate sellout and the almighty dollar. Adios. AuRevior. Aloha. What do they get in return? A per team payout going from $2.4M to more than $3.0M, which makes it the 2nd highest non-BCS payout. There's a longer-term rolling contract with a national ESPN advertising buy.
In exchange for that, they no longer want you or I referring to this bowl as the "Peach", because of course that would dilute the branding opportunity afforded by this payoff......... errrr...... partnership.
How do I feel? Well, I think it stinks. Having said that, I don't blame them. Money runs the world, so they're just playing the game. Don't hate the playa....... you know the rest.......
TOO LITTLE TOO LATE
From the "smoke filled rooms" of the ACC offices comes word that the ACC will decide which teams go where next season for bowls. For all you whiners out there that say the ACC only protects the North Carolina schools, we're sure going to find out, aren't we? ACC Commish John Swofford isn't saying there will be specific rules based on records - he's saying he and assistant commish Mike Finn will make the call. Obviously we'll know very much how they lean.
TICKET SALES
That last linked article said that Coach Gailey indicated we'd sold about 6,000 tickets for the Emerald Bowl as of yesterday. Well, this article indicates that Tech fans have donated more than 5,600 tickets to servicemen, pop warner leagues, special olympics, etc. If my math is correct, that means actual fans going to the game that have bought tickets through the GTAA number about 400 so far. Ouch................................ Well, we sure are a charitable bunch.