Topic: LIBERTY BOWL makes record payout

[DJdaHERDfan]

AutoZone Liberty Bowl pays out record total of $3 million
Should place it near middle of bowls

By Phil Stukenborg
Contact
April 12, 2005

The AutoZone Liberty Bowl paid out a record $3 million -- or $1.5 million each -- to participating teams Louisville and Boise State, bowl director Steve Ehrhart said Monday.

Louisville, the Conference USA champion, defeated Boise State, the Western Athletic Conference champ, 44-40, in a game that also attracted the bowl's largest television rating (5.4) since 1990.

The $3 million payout topped the previous high of $2.75 million for the 2002 game between TCU and Colorado State.

Ehrhart said the record payout was achieved through the contributions of "a great title sponsor and three outstanding presenting sponsors: FedEx, the Governor's Highway Safety Office and Hilton Hotels."

The matchup of the nation's top two scoring teams -- and programs ranked in the top 10 -- made the game one of the most compelling outside the Bowl Championship Series games. Ehrhart said the attractive matchup was a bonus, but not necessarily a factor in achieving the record payout.

"The payout is the result of the support of the Memphis people, support that was there and solid before the matchups were announced," Ehrhart said. "A 44-40 game capped the great support."

Ehrhart said the record payout would likely place the Liberty Bowl in the middle of the payout rankings for the 28 postseason games.

"We are very thrilled, but not particularly surprised," said Mike Longo, executive vice president of AutoZone, of the bowl game's record payout. AutoZone has a multi-year deal that started in 2004 to serve as title sponsor.

"We signed on (to be title sponsor) for all the right reasons," Longo said. "It's a hometown bowl and we're a hometown company."

The challenge, Ehrhart said, will be to remain competitive in a growing bowl landscape. The Bowl Association meetings will be held next week in Phoenix and Ehrhart said from two to seven new applications for bowl games could be received, including submissions from Toronto and a second bowl in Houston.

"We face challenges," Ehrhart said. "It's basically the competition for teams and the competition for space on television and the competition for community support. The NCAA has made it a criteria that the amount of local support is one of the key factors in the future of these bowls.

"And with NFL stadiums being used for bowl games in Houston, Nashville and Jacksonville, it's very important we continue to upgrade Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium. We're on a roll and we have to keep it going."

This year's Liberty Bowl will be played Dec. 31 between a Conference USA team and a to-be-determined conference opponent. The bowl ended a six-year affiliation with the Mountain West Conference last year, but Ehrhart said the MWC is among the leagues being considered to provide an opponent.