Why does Minnesota not have a Bowl Game?

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Out State Gopher

Out State Gopher

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Curious what would you name it, Snow Bowl? Which conferences would play & which Minnesota based businesses would be sponsors? We have an NFL stadium what else is needed?
 

Because there is no sponsor who decided to pay to host one?

You need one business to say let’s rent the Viking stadium and host a game
 


Some guy said:
Because there is no sponsor who decided to pay to host one?

You need one business to say let’s rent the Viking stadium and host a game
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Right. The Quick Lane bowl is sponsored by the Ford Motor Co. and the Detroit Lions (who are owned by the Ford family anyway). So I guess we could say that the Ford family wanted control of the bowl in Detroit and so the QL bowl came to be, replacing the Little Caesars bowl.

If the Wilfs/Vikings and perhaps some sponsoring entity wanted to have a bowl here, I guess they could. Target, General Mills and Best Buy used to spend big money to sponsor Indy and NASCAR race teams, so I suppose they could get behind something like that?
 

All I know is if Boston can hold a bowl game OUTDOORS in an old baseball park, a middling bowl game in Minneapolis indoors at the state of the art U.S. Bank Stadium would be a success at some level.

The Mall of America would be an excellent place for a fun official outing for the competing teams with battles of the bands, etc.

U.S. Bank Stadium needs to feature “real” college football on a regular basis (not counting lower level stuff like NDSU, Prep Bowl, etc). That could be early season neutral site games for the Gophers, bowl games, etc.
 


disco said:
Right. The Quick Lane bowl is sponsored by the Ford Motor Co. and the Detroit Lions (who are owned by the Ford family anyway). So I guess we could say that the Ford family wanted control of the bowl in Detroit and so the QL bowl came to be, replacing the Little Caesars bowl.

If the Wilfs/Vikings and perhaps some sponsoring entity wanted to have a bowl here, I guess they could. Target, General Mills and Best Buy used to spend big money to sponsor Indy and NASCAR race teams, so I suppose they could get behind something like that?
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I think that’s the way it would happen and would be pretty easy to make happen if they wanted it to. But someone in those spots needs to want it to
 


Schnauzer said:
All I know is if Boston can hold a bowl game OUTDOORS in an old baseball park, a middling bowl game in Minneapolis indoors at the state of the art U.S. Bank Stadium would be a success at some level.

The Mall of America would be an excellent place for a fun official outing for the competing teams with battles of the bands, etc.

U.S. Bank Stadium needs to feature “real” college football on a regular basis (not counting lower level stuff like NDSU, Prep Bowl, etc). That could be early season neutral site games for the Gophers, bowl games, etc.
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Does anyone at The Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority ... care?

US Bank Stadium seems just relegated to Vikings and the typical stadium events.

I'm not sure MSFA is in a position to put a lot of effort into finding an abandoned bowl game to pick up and move and find sponsors and such. Usually there's a whole separate bowl organization that does that.


As for the Gophers playing there regular season … NO THANKS.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
As for the Gophers playing there regular season … NO THANKS.
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Why?

I said “neutral site” game. I mean one of the five annual regular season games played on the road.

I’d much rather see the Gophers play a notable non conference opponent in U.S. Bank Stadium than a neutral site in Dallas or Atlanta.
 



Schnauzer said:
Why?

I said “neutral site” game. I mean one of the five annual regular season games played on the road.

I’d much rather see the Gophers play a notable non conference opponent in U.S. Bank Stadium than a neutral site in Dallas or Atlanta.
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Or just don't play neutral site games like now?
 


Could neutral site games help with recruiting like satellite camps? Will we see more recruits because of the four additions from the Pac12?
 




If NDSU jumps up to the Mountain West - annual game at USB would be fun. Not a ton to gain for the Gophers but crowd would be nuts. I'd go :)
 

Schnauzer said:
So you’d rather see the Gophers play at Fresno State or Syracuse than neutral site at U.S. Bank Stadium vs LSU or Clemson?
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I think you're imagining some trade off that doesn't happen.

Is there a neutral site that wants to see us play Fresno?

That's not what neutral site games are....
 



You only do it if its a annual game - $$$$ is spent down here rather than having to play in the Fargo Dome.
Hates Monikers said:
I don't understand why the Gophers would want to play that game at U.S. Bank Stadium and not at Huntington Bank Stadium.
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46Gophers said:
Forget a bowl game. How about US Bank hosting the Big10 Championship game on a regular basis?
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Forget a bowl game. How about US Bank Stadium hosting the NFC Championship game on a regular basis?

Oh… wait… wrong forum… sorry.
 

46Gophers said:
Forget a bowl game. How about US Bank hosting the Big10 Championship game on a regular basis?
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I sense that is even less of a possibility with the 4 PAC12 teams being added.

Pasadena & Las Vegas are now in play. If the Bears get a stadium with a roof, Chicago will also have a better chance.
 


Schnauzer said:
Why?

I said “neutral site” game. I mean one of the five annual regular season games played on the road.

I’d much rather see the Gophers play a notable non conference opponent in U.S. Bank Stadium than a neutral site in Dallas or Atlanta.
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Apparently if the Gophers play St. Thomas in basketball they could fill US Bank Stadium with local media members alone...
 

as noted, it would not be a "new" bowl game. some existing bowl would have to lose its sponsor, and some Twin Cities business or organization would have to step forward to claim the orphan bowl.
after a little research, it looks like the minimum required to host or sponsor a Bowl is about $500,000 - but the more prestigious the bowl, the higher the cost. so could easily be talking several million $$ for a 'better' bowl game.

Does Target or General Mills really want to cough up a million bucks to sponsor a lower-tier bowl game in MN? color me skeptical.
 

These things all have promotion teams.

You need someone to really champion it, to make it happen.


If it got major viewership and was a major bowl between major teams, I do think a General Mills or someone local might be interested in being a headline sponsor.

But none of the major bowls are giving up what they have. They're good to go, or they're things like the LA Bowl or the Las Vegas Bowl. We'll never compete with those.

It would have to start as a minor bowl. And then the problems only compile. Not least of which is: we're far away from most fanbases.


Detroit works so nicely because it's so close to so many MAC fanbases, and a decent number of Big Ten ones. Minneapolis is not.


We have lots of flights, but Delta is nearly a monopoly so ticket prices are absurd.


Think the best we could do is to displace Detroit, but there are so many negative marks in our list compared to them. Doubt it happens, unless they decide to expand the number of bowl slots, and they can't put six win teams in all of them as it is.
 

Bowls used to be Chamber of Commerce type of events. Someone needs to believe that we need some kind of exposure or tourist revenue, come up with a local theme and then find a corporate sponsor that feels a civic duty to put its name on the bowl. Something like "The Old Dutch Rip-L Chips Twin Pack George Floyd Bowl"; "PFAS Bowl presented by 3M"; "United Health 'Ope' Bowl". Probably don't need a huge sponsor though. Hell, Scooters Coffee sponsored the Frisco Bowl. Maybe something like "Muddy Cow Cedar-Riverside Bowl" would do. I could see dozens of people showing up to see a post season matchup between the 7th place MAC team and 5th place Sun Belt team. And the winner would gladly hoist the Clever Trophy for winning the Von Hanson's Light Rail Bowl before catching the Blue Line back to terminal 2 and getting their charter the hell out of here before the snow hits.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
Does Target or General Mills really want to cough up a million bucks to sponsor a lower-tier bowl game in MN? color me skeptical.
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It’s not just the sponsorship. It costs a lot more. Anyone here that has Fiesta Bowl season tickets has to buy a Guaranteed Rate ST. Also, many of the Diamondback ST holders are also required to buy Guaranteed Rate tickets.

Ya think Viking ST holders are willing? Color me skeptical as well. Auggies are that way.
 

yes because everyone knows Minnesotans are just dying for more college football
 

There are already so many bowl games that a team with a 5-7 record went to s bowl this year; there weren’t enough 6 win teams. There really isn’t a mathematical need for any more bowl games unless you want to see two teams with losing records playing each other.
 

Gophergrandpa said:
There are already so many bowl games that a team with a 5-7 record went to s bowl this year; there weren’t enough 6 win teams. There really isn’t a mathematical need for any more bowl games unless you want to see two teams with losing records playing each other.
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There's a market for bowl games, even featuring bad teams but nobody thinks there would be an additional game here. Essentially, MSP would have to poach an existing bowl.

I don't know why people get so bent out of shape over the number of bowl games. Don't watch if you don't want. Each MLB team plays 162 games before never ending playoffs. NBA plays 82 games and players routinely sit out. NHL plays 82 games and plays most of the year before never ending playoffs. There are irrelevant games all across the sports world. So what if 82 fanbases get to see there favorite college FB team play one more meaningless game? Everyone is doing it.
 

Ope3 said:
I sense that is even less of a possibility with the 4 PAC12 teams being added.

Pasadena & Las Vegas are now in play. If the Bears get a stadium with a roof, Chicago will also have a better chance.
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I feel like if Chicago gets a climate-controlled football stadium, the Big Ten football championship is there, and only there.
 

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