Posted on 02/27/2007 3:32:28 PM PST by COEXERJ145
DALLAS — Hoping to get the Cotton Bowl back on college football's national stage, the board that oversees the game voted Tuesday to move it to the new Dallas Cowboys stadium starting in 2010.
Cotton Bowl Athletic Association Chairman Bruce Gadd declined to reveal details of the contract with the Cowboys but said it will last more than a decade.
"This is one of the most important decisions in the 71-year history of the AT&T Cotton Bowl," Gadd said in a statement. "Moving the Classic preserves the Classic's legacy and, at the same time, secures its future as one of college football's best postseason bowl games."
Backers want to get the Cotton Bowl into the Bowl Championship Series mix and make it the future location of a national championship game.
The move was approved by a voice vote during a somber regular meeting of the Cotton Bowl Athletic Association board of directors, Gadd said. He said no negative votes were voiced, although some board members may have declined to vote.
"There were tears in the room," he said. "When it was over it was unanimous, and there was some applause. ... It was a move we had to make. There was not one incident of someone standing up and saying maybe we shouldn't do this."
The first game at the new venue in Arlington, between Dallas and Fort Worth, will be on New Year's Day, 2010.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
Sweet!
It's about time. The Cotton Bowl stadium is decrepit and in a dangerous neighborhood. The only available parking is the backyards of slum residents.
If it were up to me, there would still be a Southwest Conference with 8 teams, and the Cotton Bowl would still be one of the Big Four bowl games played on New Year's Day, starting around 2 PM on CBS, with Lindsey Nelson doing the play-by-play.
Sigh. Where have you gone, John David Crow and Bobby Joe Conrad?
I seriously doubt Texas and OU will continue playing at the Cotton Bowl. I wonder how many millions of dollars both schools give up by not playing at their home stadiums both of which are bigger than the Cotton Bowl and also have box seats. I've been to the Texas State Fair just once about ten years ago when my uncle was involved with WFAA's HDTV exhibit. The fair grounds are really in poor shape, and the whole idea of state fairs is rather obsolete anyway. The biggest contributors to the state fair seemed to be auto manufactures who took up most of the indoor exhibit space with new car displays.
I am happy the Cotton Bowl is moving to Arlington. But I don't think they should become part of the BCS, where they can host actual national title games. If any bowl should become a part of the BCS system, it should be the Chick Fil A (formerly Peach) Bowl.
As a Soonerfan, we have been hearing our game is also moving to the new stadium from The Cotton Bowl. We have an agreement with The Cotton Bowl through I think it is 2010 to play the OU/TX game at The Cotton Bowl but since the same group overseas we should be moving as well.
It is tradition with OU/TX -- half and half!
I have always wondered why they just don't have it at either OU or Texas. It doesn't make much sense to have it at the Cotton Bowl. OU and Texas have good fan bases and I am pretty sure the fans would be willing to make the trip to Austin or Norman to see the game.
I keep hoping they will bring back the Bluebonnet Bowl. BTW, I recall about 20 years ago the Peach Bowl came very close to being discontinued. Anybody remember the Cherry Bowl, played in the Pontiac Silverdome?
The Cotton Bowl is one of the four oldest bowl games in continuous existence, and it has always been played on New Year's day. It has hosted national championship games before. The Fiesta Bowl originally was a rather minor bowl played before New Year's day when it started up in the early 1970's.
You didn't go to the pig races?
Seeing as how I had bad things happen to my OU-decorated car in Dallas, I can't imagine having to go to Austin for The Game. Nopey nope - no way.
And think how perfectly awful it would be to have hordes of whorns cruising Lindsay! Yikes!
I am sad about the Cotton Bowl and the State Fair, tho. Loved them. Cotton Bowl was like a HS stadium to me, as it was our football stadium when I was at SMU, too, and we had pitiful attendance - but everyone got good seats!
I have never heard of the Bluebonnet or Cherry Bowl, but I am only 27 years old. So that was definitely before my time. I wish it was still the Chick Fil A Peach Bowl, instead of the Chick Fil A Bowl.
Or go get free miniature loaves of Mrs Baird's bread at the Made in Texas building? I loved that exhibit hall.
Prior to 1996 it was an inter conference game, and often one of the toughest games on either team's schedule. Now both schools are in the same division of the same conference. Back when the game was started, The Cotton Bowl was bigger than either's stadium, and the state fair was a bonus. Nowadays, I wouldn't go out of my way to attend a state fair.
I first went to the Cotton Bowl to watch the Cowboys play in the late 60's. While old and in disrepair, I'll miss that stadium.
That must have been the odor I smelled.
I was a charter ticketholder from the very first Bluebonnet Bowl onward. Rice Stadium, I think it was Tulsa vs Mississippi, but could be wrong about that.
There weren't many things like that which I could afford straight out of school, so it was neat to get them - and the teams that played were always either mine or someone's in the family, lol, so lots of enthusiasm.
Heck, I didn't want Oilers season tickets - anyway, my business always had plenty of freebies for that, even Skyboxes.
Greeaaaat. Just what we need around here: more drunken out-of-towners.
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