Bowl organizers seek NCAA's OK
Armed with a new-look management — but apparently an old name — officials of a newly organized proposed bowl game in Seattle take their case to the NCAA bowl certification subcommittee next week in New Orleans.
They hope to revive a postseason game at Seahawks Stadium, a concept that began with the first Seattle Bowl in 2001, continued in 2002 but died a quiet death when certification was denied last spring.
In December, Paul Feller, California-based CEO of Pro Sports Entertainment, announced plans to restart the game in 2004 under the name Emerald City Bowl. That moniker may not get off the ground, however, as the Diamond Walnut San Francisco Bowl announced last week that its game will now be known as the Emerald Bowl.
Gary Cavalli, executive director of the San Francisco game, said the Emerald designation is a snack brand of the Diamond company, and that the Emerald logo was used on the field for the 2003 game.
Cavalli said he had conflicting information as to the proposed name change in Seattle, adding that a news release referred to it as the Seattle Bowl. That, combined with the uncertainty over whether the game here would even be certified again, he said, led his bowl to OK the name change (which it traded for a year's extension of the sponsorship).
"Ours is already done," said Cavalli. "It's an existing bowl."
Feller said he found the San Francisco game's name change "very amusing, but our position is that it's not necessarily in the name, it's the quality of the bowl game. We will most likely revert to another name, and that's fine."
Of more significance to the revival of the Seattle game is that Feller says he has secured the necessary $2 million letter of credit — a necessary first step in NCAA certification — and that he has enlisted a couple of veteran bowl organizers to play key management roles.
One is Don Andersen, former USC and Seahawks publicist who later operated the Freedom Bowl and Disneyland Pigskin Classic. The other is Jay Key, who ran the Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose.
Andersen has been working with Feller's group as a consultant, with the idea that he will become executive director of the Seattle bowl if it gains certification next week.
Key, Feller says, will be director of operations and marketing.
"We've got an amazing management team," Feller said.
Besides the letter of credit, there are other subjective factors judged by the certification subcommittee — things like community support, a TV contract, conference affiliations and a title sponsor.
Feller said the affiliation will be with the Mountain West and Atlantic Coast conferences.
"We met all the other criteria (in addition to the letter of credit)," said Feller. "I think we've delivered and overdelivered."
Feller says the reception to the bowl's revival has been good.
"When we first came into the community, there was a bad taste left in a lot of mouths from the previous regime," he said. "(But) I would say the reception is very strong and the support is very strong."
One possibility is that the NCAA subcommittee re-certifies the bowl, but not until 2005. That could happen if it perceives that some of the recommendations are not in place, or if it wants to ensure that a revived bowl would not fold again.
Referring to the notion that the game could be delayed until 2005, Feller said, "That's always a possibility, yes."
A potential hurdle is the number of bowl games already on the docket. Last season, there were 28, leaving open the possibility that there might not be enough winning teams to fill them — especially with the cutback from 12 to 11 games this year.
Another possible complication: An antitrust lawsuit by Aloha Sports Inc., owner of the former Aloha, Oahu and Seattle bowls, against the NCAA. If the suit is seen by the subcommittee as an entanglement for the new group in Seattle, it could result in a delay in certification.
The suit alleges the NCAA, in its bowl certification process, fosters "anti-competitive effects." It contends the required payout of $750,000 prevented Aloha Sports from negotiating payouts based on factors like desirability of playing in Hawaii, and claims the requirement of a winning record kept the University of Hawaii out of the game, thus crimping attendance.
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin quoted David Kesselman, an attorney for Aloha Sports Inc., as saying that Aloha had an agreement in place to sell the Seattle Bowl for $1 million to Feller's group, but that the denial of certification scuttled the deal. The loss of potential revenue from the sale, Kesselman said, is part of the suit.