The Tempe City Council and Valley of the Sun Bowl Foundation announced Thursday that the Insight Bowl will move to Tempe's Sun Devil Stadium in 2006 for an eight-year run. A contract formalizing the deal is expected to be signed today.
John Junker, president and CEO of the Insight Bowl, said the game's new position as a battleground for teams from the high-profile Big Ten and Big 12 Conferences required that a bigger venue be found for the event than its current home, Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix. The ballpark maxes out at around 45,000 seats for football games.
"We think there's a need to keep building the size of the crowd, and Sun Devil Stadium gives us the upside capacity to do that," Junker said.
The move comes in the nick of time. Tempe is losing the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl to Glendale in 2006, when the prospective Arizona Cardinals stadium opens for business there. The Fiesta Bowl has been held at Sun Devil Stadium since 1971, and the loss of it could translate to losing thousands of sports fans and the associated millions of dollars in potential tourist income.
An event similar to the Tempe Tostitos Fiesta Bowl Block Party will accompany the Insight Bowl.
Junker also said the move would lead to a larger payout for the teams playing the bowl. Since a larger number of seats would be filled at Sun Devil Stadium than at Bank One Ballpark, this would help create more income with which to pay the teams.
Scott Schoeffler, vice president of media relations for the Insight Bowl, said the city of Tempe will assist in financing these payouts.
The city will provide $750,000 in funding for the first three years, increasing the contributions every few years until $900,000 is donated during the final year of the arrangement.
Tempe Mayor Hugh Hallman said, to his knowledge, this is the first time a major city has sponsored a football game like this. The sources of these funds will be advertising revenue and $235,000 in payments made by the Arizona Cardinals to the city.
"The balance of the funds will most likely be generated by the sponsorships we sell as part of the continuing effort to support the bowl game itself, as well as the block party," Hallman said.
The city will benefit greatly from the exposure it will receive from a nationally televised sports game like the Insight Bowl, Hallman said. This will help Tempe market itself as a center for "amateur athletic sports" and as a destination for hi-tech businesses, attracting new residents and firms in the process.
The bowl could bring economic benefits that Hallman "conservatively" estimated could be in the ballpark of $40 million dollars.
Reach the reporter at grayson.steinberg@asu.edu.
