PapaJohn's Bowl impressed with Cincinnati's showing!

http://www.al.com/sports/birminghamnews/...xml&coll=2

Papajohns.com Bowl between Southern Mississippi and Cincinnati has sold 42,160 tickets


The Papajohns.com Bowl has sold 42,160 tickets one week before Southern Mississippi and No.20 Cincinnati meet Dec. 22 at Legion Field, bowl officials said Friday.

The sales include 23,000 tickets purchased by the conferences as part of their contract - Conference USA receives 13,000 and the Big East gets 10,000 - and approximately 19,000 in local distribution. Bowl officials are hoping for 30,000 to 35,000 in attendance.

Cincinnati announced Friday it has sold and allocated more than 8,300 tickets from its allotment of 10,000. Southern Miss said it has distributed between 4,200 and 4,500.

The Papajohns.com Bowl sold 42,305 tickets and had an actual attendance of 28,527 for its inaugural game. At this time last year, the bowl had sold about 40,000 tickets.

"We're slightly ahead," said Mark Meadows, the bowl's executive director. "After last year, there's a lot more awareness of the game."

The NCAA counts actual attendance, not paid, when monitoring bowl turnouts. Bowl games must average 25,000 over a three-year period to remain certified.

In a possible change from last year, the Papajohns.com Bowl's Big East representative may have a larger turnout than the C-USA team.

Cincinnati reports its ticket sales far exceed the school record of 4,787, set for the 2000 Motor City Bowl. The Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte chose Connecticut over Cincinnati this season largely due to questions about Cincinnati's fan travel.

Cincinnati issued a press release Friday touting its ticket number, providing a thank-you from coach Brian Kelly to fans, and seeking more sales to "help send a strong message to all bowl committees that Bearcats Nation is a viable postseason football force."

"We're the recipient of Cincinnati's perceived snub by the Meineke Bowl," Meadows said. "They have a point to prove that they can travel to bowl games, and I think their athletic department is working real hard to get them to Birmingham."

Cincinnati is marketing a two-day motorcoach trip to Birmingham with costs ranging between $210 and $295. Seven student buses and more than 24 buses total are scheduled to take fans from Cincinnati to Birmingham in the days leading up to the game.

On the other hand, Southern Miss and lame duck coach Jeff Bower are trailing the Bearcats despite being located closer. Jack Duggan, Southern Miss's sports information director, said the school is about on pace with its trip to the GMAC Bowl in Mobile last year.

"We've got a big alumni base in Birmingham, and I think we'll have between 6,000 and 8,000 Southern Miss fans there," Duggan said. "We won't know all the tickets. Some will probably buy through the bowl, or get some from their job."

Meadows said he is "not really" concerned about ticket sales from Southern Miss and was told by the school it would at least reach 5,000.

"I think Southern Miss fans are close enough where they may not feel like they need to purchase tickets in advance," Meadows said. "However, I would urge them to do so to make sure they're sitting with other Southern Miss fans."

Robbie Robertson, the chairman of the bowl's executive board, said he thinks the disappointing season by Southern Miss and Bower's resignation impacted the school's ticket sales.

"I would really like to see us in the 35,000 range next Saturday," Robertson said. "If we could cross 30,000, I think that would be great. People say that's not great attendance, but the measuring stick isn't Alabama and Auburn. Forty or 50,000 would be great, but that's not reality now. We'll get there in time."


I'm VERY impressed! This sends a message to the country that Cincinnati and the Big East can travel!

Yes, I agree. This should help the BIG EAST down the road when the new bowl contracts come up. Congrats to UC!!!!

Bull Daly Wrote:Yes, I agree. This should help the BIG EAST down the road when the new bowl contracts come up. Congrats to UC!!!!

It's kind of weird that we have gone from a program that is an attendance hindrance to a program that is helping a BCS conference's attendance image and is also helping save a bowl that is affiliated with a BCS conference! Bowl have to average at least 25,000 fans over a 3 years period, and this Cincinnati/Southern Miss showing is helping push that bowl well over that average after a solid showing from ECU and USF last year.

Good job, UC.

Lets just hope we get a good crowd there... not just sold. I'll be driving overnight on Friday night to get there by 10AM to tailgate for 3 hours. We are then staying the night in B'ham, heading out to their local entertainment district.

Too bad you can't come downn a day early for the board meeting. Hope to see you at the tailgate though.

Go Bearcats pluck those Golden Beagles.

Yeah... with a newborn having 2.5 days away would be a problem. It was enough to get 2AM Saturday through 4PM Sunday accepted by the wife :).

I had trouble getting the wife to let me go on a third roadtrip to a game. She is a Tennessee fan and I had to promise a trip to Knoxville next year.

very impressive, to be close to selling 10K in this situation says alot.

Nice

good job cincy... I would imagine playing USM helps a bit.. even though they are down.. it is a bit of a old rival's game.

goodknightfl Wrote:good job cincy... I would imagine playing USM helps a bit.. even though they are down.. it is a bit of a old rival's game.

USM as the opponent did help, but not as such

It is more that we're pissed we're only playing USM, and all the talk about teams not travelling well

I think USM will hurt the turnout, personally. Nobody in Cincinnati has ever cared about Southern Mississippi (no offense to eagle fans, you guys have a good program there).

Agreed. It's more a case of UC being angry and wanting to prove a point. While I'm impressed with UC's showing, I really believe we would have taken 10,000 to 12,000 fans with us to the Tire Bowl, and about the same number to the Sun Bowl that we're taking to PapaJohn's, maybe slightly less depending on the travel schedule.

All of the Cincy fans were required to purchase the Bowl tickets with their season ticket package.

All this really tells people who look deeper is that you have VERY weak season ticket sales.

Congrats!!!

mlb Wrote:Yeah... with a newborn having 2.5 days away would be a problem. It was enough to get 2AM Saturday through 4PM Sunday accepted by the wife :).

I feel your pain.

Quote:All of the Cincy fans were required to purchase the Bowl tickets with their season ticket package.

All this really tells people who look deeper is that you have VERY weak season ticket sales.

Congrats!!!

Ok... now that the moron who has no idea what he is talking about has posted, lets post the truth.

1. Not all season ticket holders are forced to buy them, only the better seats on the sidelines are. Thus, about 5500 or so people were forced to buy them.

2. By math reasoning skills, about 3000+ people have since purchased tickets to the game.

Nobody has ever stated UC has a huge fan base, but the average attendance was up considerably this year, as were season ticket sales. Next year is expected to be another record year for attendance and season ticket sales.

Now go find your way back to the CUSA board.

mlb Wrote:Now go find your way back to the CUSA board.

In all fairness, it's gotta suck being a jealous fan whose team was jilted from BE membership. At least the other ECU guy Hummell has been smart enough to stay off with the evidence of UC's increased (and will continue) attendence

Oh, and no one was forced to buy a bowl ticket. They did get $50 added onto the price of season tickets which COULD be used for a bowl game, but also could be used as a down payment on next year's season tickets, or be used as a UCATS donation.