Man, the Gator Bowl is EMPTY

[GarySJ]

There's nobody in the end zones, hardly anybody in the upper deck, and visible empty seats around the field. There's no way the place is even half full. It looks like the crowd for USF's annual I-AA home game. And they thought we wouldn't sell tickets?

[AndytheBull]

Good, I hope ND loses every game for the next 2 years and then they'd really be screwed.

[outrunner]

As a native of Jacksonville, I'm saddened to see the Gator bowl fall off so much in recent years. However, it was completely the Gator Bowl comitees fault. Their biggest mistake was getting the ACC championship game. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but then FSU and UM decided to collapse. Then you get the smallest schools in the ACC (Wake, GT, and BC) to start winning the conference. Between Wake and BC, there's not even enough alumni alive to fill Jacksonville Municipal Stadium. Also, having it set up to where the loser of the ACC champiosnhip comes back to Jacksonville in one month for the Gator bowl was also bad planning (luckily that didn't happen this year). I think it's time for them to scrap the ACC affiliation, that's what's killing the bowl. Also, they need to re-committ to the Big East. Usually those are the teams that have the fans come to town. One more problem they have is promoting in the community. I was home for a week in Jacksonville for Christmas and not once did I see a commercial on TV for the Gator bowl, only a couple of times did I hear an ad of the radio, and all of the newspaper ads were for going to do the other activities, like the Gator Bowl 5k, not for going to the game. Bad marketing. Hard to believe a few years ago the Gator bowl might have been considered for the 5th BCS bowl. Hope they get things straightened out up there.

[DELdaBull]

It would have been full of Bulls if they were not so ******************.

[BullMedic]

Yeah, pretty ridiculous. They definitely screwed themselves over. Well whatever. Maybe next year they will think it through a little more.

[SANJAY]

If Notre Dame is not eligible next year they will take Big 12 again hoping that Notre Dame is eligible in 2009.

[GarySJ]

If Notre Dame is not eligible next year they will take Big 12 again hoping that Notre Dame is eligible in 2009.

And deal with another year of 35,000 empty seats?

At what point does the cost of inviting suboptimal teams outweigh the benefits of someday getting Notre Dame?

Especially when ND's recent Gator Bowl visits didn't exactly break attendance records? The West Virginia-Maryland Gator Bowl sold 5,000 more tickets than NC State-Notre Dame the year before. Other Gator Bowls involving Florida State and WVU did nearly as well as Notre Dame did. Gator Bowl year-by-year figures

I fail to see why the Gator Bowl is going to all this trouble to invite a team that doesn't outsell the teams it can get normally.

[Joe]

I think its people on hre speculating that they are waiting for ND. Reality is the Gator Bowl would be stuck with a BIG 12 team the next 2 years if they took UConn or USF. It really had nothing to do exclusively with ND.

I heard from a good source that they were gonna take UCONN if they took a BE team so it might have been moot for us.

[Matt]

problem is...i have a feeling that ND is either going to be BCS eligible or not bowl eligible at all.  gator bowl folks need to wake up and smell the roses.