Holiday Bowl Payout, New Sponsor Revealed

Holiday Bowl officials said Monday that Texas A&M; and Brigham Young, the two participants in the 1990 game, will receive the largest payouts in the bowl’s history, an estimated $1,201,456.00

The payout surpasses the $1,009,038 received by Penn State and BYU for the 1989 game.

Morris Sievert, the 1991 president of the Holiday Bowl, also confirmed that Thrifty Car Rental will replace Sea World as the game’s title sponsor. The Holiday Bowl and Thrifty have reached a three-year agreement.

“It’s an extremely positive move for the Holiday Bowl,” Sievert said. “We’re teaming up with an aggressive partner who will help the Holiday Bowl reach even loftier goals in the future.”

Sea World, which will continue to participate in the Holiday Bowl as a “presenting sponsor,” was purchased slightly more than a year ago by Anheuser-Busch Inc. Herb Klein, the bowl’s title sponsor chairman, said Sea World, the title sponsor of the game since 1986, wanted to reduce its involvement.

“Sea World felt it wanted to drop back to some degree with the change in ownership,” Klein said. “They’ve been very helpful to us.

“Basically, they reached a conclusion that they couldn’t reach some of the goals we would like.”

ESPN, which has televised the game since 1987, also had a representative at Monday’s news conference. The Holiday Bowl’s contract with ESPN runs through the 1993 game.