Sea World to Sponsor Holiday Bowl

The Holiday Bowl has a new name and a new sponsor to provide bigger payments to participating college football teams, bowl organizers announced Thursday.

The postseason game will be called the Sea World Holiday Bowl after the marine park that became its sponsor. Financial terms were not disclosed on the five-year deal between Sea World and the Holiday Bowl, but James C. Schmidt, bowl president, said the agreement “will enable us to make a substantial increase in the amount we can offer incoming teams.”

John Reid, the bowl’s executive director, said that if the game is a sellout (60,750), that figure “could approach $700,000.” That would rank seventh or eighth among bowl payouts nationally, depending upon adjustments by other bowls, Reid said.

Last season’s game, between Arizona State and Arkansas, drew 42,324 to San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium and ranked 11th among the 19 bowl games by paying $546,000 to each team, Reid said.

Until last year, the Holiday Bowl had matched an at-large opponent against Brigham Young University, the champion of the Western Athletic Conference throughout the game’s history. Under an arrangement started a year ago, the bowl schedules two at-large teams every third year, while keeping ties with the WAC champion in other years.

The remaining two years of the bowl’s television contract with Lorimar Sports have been assigned to KUTV of Salt Lake City, which has created the Holiday Bowl Television Network. Al Seethalter, KUTV general manager, said the game will be available to at least 80% of U.S. television households.

This year’s game will be played Tuesday, Dec. 30, the first post-Christmas date in the game’s eight-year history.