Originally Posted by
BankruptcyGuy
A couple of things [[as I understand them):
The bowl "payouts" are delivered largely in tickets. So Maryland probably got 20,000 or so tickets at a super-inflated price to get their share of the $1.45MM payout. If the tickets go unpurchased, the school [[not the bowl) loses out.
The bowl then earns money from the ad revenue it sells during the game. If I recall correctly [[things could have changed) ESPN basically acts as a middleman for most of the ads. Since the advertisers make more from a national draw than a local team, there isn't [[often) much connection to a local venue.
That being said, the model is dying a slow death. Some of this year's sponsors include:
Cities/Locations [[Las Vegas, New Orleans, Miami Beach, Boca Raton, Hawaii, St. Pete) [[i.e. the bowl could not find a sponsor)
Companies that I can't see get positive sales revenue from a bowl [[Advocare? Raycom Media? R&L Carriers?)
Companies I had to google to determine who they were [[Gildan? National Funding?)
It's gotten ridiculous. I don't see this system surviving for much longer.