TV Ratings Give Freedom Officials a Lift : College football: Numbers come as relief to bowl organizers, who were disappointed with attendance for the Utah-Arizona game.

Attendance for Tuesday night’s Freedom Bowl wasn’t good, but preliminary television ratings for Utah’s 16-13 victory over Arizona in Anaheim Stadium provided a boost to a game whose future remains cloudy.

Freedom Bowl XI drew an overnight Nielsen rating of 3.0, which computes to roughly 28.4 million U.S. households. That’s almost half a point higher than the average Freedom Bowl rating of 2.6, and Ken Haines, executive vice president of the Raycom Network, said the final rating could go as high as 3.4.

“That’s very encouraging, a very positive sign,” said Don Andersen, executive director of the Orange County Sports Assn., which promotes and operates the game.

But is it enough for Raycom to extend its contract to televise the game? Raycom’s five-year deal, which paid the Freedom Bowl $400,000 per year, has expired, and Haines said his Charlotte, N.C.-based company, which has experienced “marginal returns” with the Freedom Bowl, will decide in the next 30 days whether to renew.

“We’ll look at ratings, what the total advertising revenue was, and we’ll determine whether we’ll continue with that bowl,” said Haines, whose company owns and operates the Carquest Bowl. “These ratings should give them a lift, but it will be a financial decision.”

It’s one that will have a direct impact on the future of the Freedom Bowl, which can’t survive without a television contract. But even if Raycom pulls the plug, Andersen said he’s confident he could secure another television deal.

“We had an inquiring call from ESPN a few months ago, and we’ve also had conversations with the Turner Network and even ABC in the past few years,” Andersen said. “We’ll explore all options.”

One option Raycom is exploring is purchasing the game from the OCSA, as it did with the Carquest Bowl five years ago, and running all aspects of the event, from television to concessions to parking, advertising and sponsorships.

Haines said there’s “no more than a 50-50 chance” of that happening, and if Raycom did purchase the Freedom Bowl, the game “would probably move” out of Anaheim, which also lost the Pigskin Classic this year.

But a Raycom source who asked not to be identified said buying the game is “a real longshot. It’s not going to make a lot of sense, because it wouldn’t be that profitable.”

Andersen said “there’s nothing to that (Raycom buying the game) at all,” but he did say the OCSA Executive Committee would soon meet do discuss ways to increase Freedom Bowl attendance--Tuesday’s crowd of 27,477 was the smallest since the inaugural game in 1984. One option is reducing ticket prices, which are $18 and $30.

“Maybe ticket price is one factor,” Andersen said. “Maybe we should have an end zone section for $5. Those are the kinds of things we’ll review.”