Seattle Bowl
| Seattle Bowl (defunct) | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Stadium | Seahawks Stadium |
| Location | Seattle, Washington |
| Previous stadiums | Safeco Field 2001 |
| Operated | 2001–2002 |
| Conference tie-ins | ACC, Pac-10 |
| Former names | |
The Seattle Bowl was a college football bowl game played in 2001 and 2002 between teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Pacific-10 Conference in Seattle. This bowl game was a continuation of the Oahu Bowl which had moved to Seattle. The 2001 game was played at Safeco Field and the 2002 game was played at Seahawks Stadium. The game was discontinued in 2003 when financing could not be secured.
Although December in Seattle is traditionally home to an average temperature of 41 degrees and 2/3 of the days have rain, Oahu Bowl officials sought to move their game to the west coast mainland after the 2000 season. Hawai'i had already hosted the long-standing Aloha Bowl (which also lost its certification after the 2000 season after an aborted attempt to move the bowl to San Francisco) and bowl officials felt that a game with a west coast tie-in could work in the football-friendly city of Seattle. The committee and city also had hoped that the game would add tourist dollars to what is normally the slowest tourism week of the year. The game would match the fifth place teams from the ACC and Pac-10 at Safeco Field.
In 2001 the game was able to secure sponsorship from Jeep and matched the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets of the ACC against the then 11th ranked nationally Stanford University Cardinal. The Yellow Jackets pulled off the upset win by a score of 24–14 in front of 30,144 fans.
The 2002 game would almost not happen at all. The Seattle Bowl beat an NCAA mandated deadline for a letter of credit for $1.5 million by less than one hour to insure a second game. The game was moved to its intended home at Seahawks Stadium and would match Oregon against Wake Forest. Wake Forest would win the game by a score of 38–17. The attendance of the game would improve to 38,241, helped by the nearby Oregon Ducks bringing a large contingent of fans. However, the game had increased its payout to $1,000,000 per team and was unable to attract a title sponsor resulting in heavy losses.
...
Wikipedia