FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

05/19/09 

In the bowl business, spring is the time for important meetings with NCAA committees, affiliated conferences, and our industry association. Here's a brief report on the spring 2009 events.

Our entire Emerald Bowl staff--asst. executive director Ryan Oppelt, media services manager Doug Kelly and I--recently attended the annual Football Bowl Association/NCAA meetings in Southern California. These meetings represent an excellent opportunity to get together with our bowl colleagues to share information and best practices, and meet with NCAA football officials and conference commissioners.

At the FBA meeting, executive directors convene separately to go over the most critical issues confronting post-season bowls, while our staffs dig into specific areas such as sponsorship solicitation and fulfillment, the care and feeding of the media, game-week event management, and team operations logistics. Concurrently, the NCAA football issues committee reviews the applications from all existing bowls, as well as any potential new bowls, and considers changes in the licensing procedures going forward. We then meet with the committee to offer our input on how the process might be improved and how we can work together to strengthen the bowl system.

This year, our FBA meeting was held in Universal City while the conference commissioners met in Pasadena. One night, we took a 45-minute bus ride through LA traffic for a brief reception with the commissioners. There was also a trade show where 50 vendors who cater to the bowl industry showcased their wares--everything from watches, electronics, sportswear and other potential player gifts to stadium signage, media and event credentialing, program publishing, licensing services, ticketing, halftime shows, trophies, and liability insurance.

After a few days back in the office, it was on to the Pac-10 meetings in Phoenix with Emerald Bowl board chairman Ron Kovas, and then to the ACC meetings at Amelia Island. At these gatherings we review last year's game with our conference partners and provide league officials and athletic directors with updates on our bowl-game date and time, television broadcast plans, new or extended sponsorships, headquarters hotels, game-week events, personnel changes, etc.

These conference meetings also represent an opportunity to continue to build and strengthen the relationships that are so critical in our business. Since we have just begun the process of negotiating agreements with the Pac-10 and the ACC for the next four years, those relationships are more important than ever.

At the ACC meeting, the athletic directors received an update from ESPN that spotlighted last year's Emerald Bowl and our fantastic 4.6 rating. Another highlight for us was a comment from Bobby Bowden, whose Florida State team defeated UCLA in our 2006 game:  "We had a great time at your place. That was as fine a dad gum bowl as we've ever been to."

Coming from a man who's coached in five national championship games and taken 30 of his teams to post-season bowls, that was quite a compliment.

We have more meetings coming up with the Pac-10 and ACC in June/July, and will keep you posted. 

Gary Cavalli, Executive Director gcavalli@emeraldbowl.org