(04-23-2017 07:07 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(04-23-2017 05:55 PM)johnintx Wrote:  

(04-23-2017 05:32 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(04-23-2017 04:34 PM)johnintx Wrote:  

(04-23-2017 04:04 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  I wonder why they didn't consider Houston. If they only needed 22K stadium, they could have used the EXACT same set up that Houston used for the Super Bowl. It could have been downtown at BBVA compass stadium with all events in the Convention center, a series of concerts in the downtown Discovery Green Park, with each team getting it's own new 1000 room hotel to stay in on either side of the park. The hotels and convention center all border the park. The stadium is walking distance from there. Once the bowl grew, they could move the game to TDECU that has 40K capacity and is accessible to the downtown Discovery Green complex via light rail. Lots of restaurants and clubs are also on or near Discovery Green Park as well. The theatre district is within walking distance and the Museum District can be reached via light rail. Keeping everyone in that small entertainment district would create a pretty fun atmosphere for the teams and fans. It worked great for the Super Bowl.

Houston handles events really well. That's a huge reason it was able to attract multiple Super Bowls and Final Fours.

In this case, I presume it's because ESPN Events already runs the Texas Bowl, and doesn't want to run a second bowl game in Houston. And, if the AAC intends to move their headquarters to Dallas, they would like to expand their presence there with a bowl game.

The city planners really put a lot of thought into those big events. I think the AAC would like to link up with the HOD and Armed Forces Bowl in Dallas if the headquarters moves there as planned. I can easily see the Frisco Bowl becoming a CUSA bowl if that occurs.

It works in Houston's favor to be one centralized metropolitan area. All of the stadiums and attractions are "inside the Loop", and all but NRG Stadium/complex are downtown. There is much more identity with the area here. No matter where you live in this area (Katy, Sugar Land, Clear Lake, Cypress, The Woodlands, Kingwood, etc.), if asked, we say we live in "Houston".

In North Texas, it was quite an accomplishment to get all the cities on one page just to host one Super Bowl and one Final Four. There is and will always be a rivalry between Dallas and Fort Worth, among other cities. To tell someone from Fort Worth that they live in "Dallas" is an insult. Plus, the stadium is in Arlington, Tarrant County. Dallas is the largest, but not centralized city. Hence, all the pre-game events had to be spread out over multiple cities. This proved to be a logistical nightmare, especially when an ice storm hit during Super Bowl week, with the media staying in Dallas, players staying in Grapevine and Dallas, practice in Irving and Fort Worth, yeah, it was a mess.

With regards to bowl games, the Cotton Bowl is the traditional Dallas game now played in Arlington, with ties to the entire area. The Armed Forces Bowl is Fort Worth's bowl. The Heart of Dallas Bowl is the Dallas replacement for the Cotton Bowl. The Frisco game will be the Frisco/Collin County bowl. The area is that sprawling and decentralized. So, yes, there will be four bowl games in the same metro area, but they really draw upon three different sub-markets.

The more I look at the numbers, 20K is really too small. After Miami, the next lowest attendance at an AAC bowl game was almost 27K. Miami (15K attendance) was an anomaly as it had 2 fan bases with an average attendance of under 20K each located an average of 1500 miles away from the bowl. That was a recipe for disaster. Frisco will likely never have that situation.

The date and time of the day the bowl was played didn't help the Miami Bowl either.