COLUMN: Montgomery - the newest new home of two bowl games with one on Christmas?
Buffalo finished off Marshall in Friday’s Camellia Bowl as part of this week’s bowl doubleheader at Cramton Bowl. There has been some talk of Montgomery continuing as a home to two games annually. (Marvin Gentry)
By GRAHAM DUNN
Montgomery joined an elite company of cities in the landscape of college football on Friday.
With Wednesday’s Montgomery Bowl and the Camellia Bowl on Christmas Day, the Capital City became home, if only briefly, of two games in the postseason.
True, the only reason was due to the inaugural Fenway Bowl being postponed due to COVID-19. After Friday, the game is scheduled to return to its home of Boston.
Yet, it was neat that Montgomery was the centerpiece of sports TV on Christmas Day… again.
It brought back memories of the days of the Blue-Gray Classic and it’s traditional time of 11:30 a.m. There were plenty of old stories passed around the pressbox on Friday, most having to do with just how cold it was and how many were in attendance, despite what the game’s executive director, the late Charles “Fats” Jones, might holler out as the number.
The talk created a couple of questions – Will Christmas become a permanent home of the Camellia Bowl?
And, what are the chances of the city being home to a couple of bowl games in the future?
Let’s take the latter first.
Historically, there are five cities that are host to multiple games – Miami, New Orleans, Orlando, Dallas/Ft. Worth and Tampa. Atlanta is also the home of the Celebration Bowl, a HBCU game or FCS, so you could say there are six.
Based on population, hotel rooms and landmass, Montgomery does not measure up to any of these.
But that’s not how communities are being chosen for bowl sites.
Since 2015, seven different sites have been added to the bowl season - none would be considered “traditional” type places where warm sunny days greet bowl patrons.
The latest additions are (or were before COVID) in Boston; Myrtle Beach, SC; Frisco Texas; Inglewood (LA), CA. Other cities have been put on hold. Those include Little Rock, Austin, Texas, Charleston, SC and St. Louis.
If the Fenway Bowl takes off, you might see a game played in Chicago at Wrigley Field, although I can’t think of a colder place to play an outdoor football game in December - on the windy shores of Lake Michigan.
Lately, ESPN has cornered the market and owns all but a small handful of games in the post season. The idea is to create build up towards the College Football Playoff, which the network also has television rights.
More bowl games mean more promos for what is the most watched games annually.
Montgomery fits what ESPN wants in a bowl site. Allow me to explain.
COVID-19 has created a lot of suffering in sports. After years of golden eggs and easy money, the next few years are expected to be leaner than most.
ESPN is looking for ease of site prep and financial frugality. Montgomery meets both criteria.
The other advantage is that the ESPN bosses like our city, for lots of reasons. First, and maybe foremost, Cramton Bowl is actually a great venue for what they are looking in a small-market bowl site. The stadium has been modernized for television. The press box is “user friendly.”
And, it looks good on TV, even with a less-than-capacity turnout in the stadium. The site lines on TV can be manipulated a little bit easier thanks to raised walls surrounding the field.
That’s too much technical info but I didn’t just make that up. It was part of a conversation I had with a TV executive a couple of years ago.
Another plus for Montgomery is the ease of getting in and out, travel-wise. Downtown is convenient from the Interstate, which allows the big trucks to move in and out of town. That may not seem like much but if you’ve ventured to any of the other bowl sites, you’ll find the older stadiums still have narrow streets to manage.
A lot of the old venues also are located in old neighborhoods. Being downtown means workers are only a couple of minutes away from their hotel rooms.
As for the second question - would ESPN keep the Camellia Bowl on Christmas – that would depend on just how sold the network is on keeping the NBA as the only focus that day. The main reason why the game was moved to Christmas this year had to do with the unknown start of the NBA season and since Montgomery had a history of playing on Christmas, it was an easy sell.
While TV ratings haven’t been released at presstime, don’t expect large numbers of viewers unlike the days of Blue-Gray when the game was one of the most watched postseason games annually.
But the idea has merit. Reports are that ESPN officials are considering it. Those same reports say Camellia Bowl and city of Montgomery officials are open to it.
The possibility sounds exciting but it doesn’t guarantee anything. All of this may be a pipe dream and Montgomery will continue to have just the one game on a Saturday in mid-December.
But it’s no accident our city was picked to be a replacement for one of the bowl games. They could have gone anywhere else but credit Johnny Williams for making it happened.
Chances are he might make more in the near future.