Bowl Game At Trop A Possibility
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Published: Jul 18, 2007

NEWPORT, R.I. - Big East Conference and Tampa Bay Devil Rays officials have had discussions about starting a Big East bowl game at Tropicana Field in 2010.

"It's pretty serious on both sides," Big East associate commissioner Nick Carparelli Jr. said Tuesday from the Big East's media days meeting. "Common sense-wise the Devil Rays have an empty building in December and January, so it would be great for them.

"All our coaches recruit in Florida, and Florida is a great destination for a bowl game. We're talking to them to pull all the entities together in Tampa Bay."

Rays president Matt Silverman said the team has had preliminary conversations with the Big East and the next step is to have "more candid" talks.

"We certainly are interested in bringing events of such prominence to St. Petersburg and Tropicana Field," Silverman said. "Tropicana Field has hosted a Final Four, and a major bowl game would be a major addition to our roster."

Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese said the league's current bowl contracts expire after the 2009 season, so the earliest a St. Petersburg bowl could occur would be 2010.

"As always, we stand ready to assist our community teammates, USF and the Devil Rays, in evaluating any future championship-hosting opportunity that could provide a win for this area," Tampa Bay Sports Commission executive director Rob Higgins said.

http://www.tbo.com/sports/bulls/MGBN1L9A94F.html

It'd be good for USF if they made it to this bowl they wouldn't have to travel and would have more fan support.

USF is a better team than what level this bowl game will end up being.

And speaking of USF -- they can't even get students and alumni to attend REGULAR season games. A local bowl game is really moot.

People love to hit bowl games in the sun.Notre Dame, West Virginia, Syracuse... fans travel. Big East fans will flock here in droves in order to cheer for their team and get some golf and fishing in. You never know they might buy a condo or 2.

OK, lets take a detached look at this for a minute instead of wearing Tampa Bay on your sleeves --

FACT: This will be another bowl game in a CROWDED bowl game field. It won't be a marquee game, it may not even be played at the traditional dates of marquee games (between Christmas and New Years -- with the National Championship games having a later date).

FACT: The Teams that play in this game will likely be lower tiered/poorly performing programs.

FACT: Tropicana Field is hardly a multi-purpose venue and playing football within causes logistics problems. It's like playing football games at ATT Ballpark in San Francisco -- oh sure, it can happen but it comes off bad for the spectators.

FACT: Unless it's a top tiered bowl game, college fans don't travel as far as you think they would if the game has no meaning or the opponent isn't that formidable.

I'd sooner press for the Outback Bowl to have some relevance to the Bowl Championship series (it may already) than press for Tropicana Field getting a bowl game in an already over-done bowl game field.

I'm a bit skeptical at the whole possbility period.....at the moment anyways.....especially with so much talk about the Rays moving and the Trop aging. Will the Trop even be around in 2010, 2011? I would assume so...I guess.