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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher/Writer
The Las Vegas Bowl has its matchup: It’s 14-ranked Oregon State (9-3) out of the Pac-12 and a 6-6 Florida team from the SEC.
It will be interesting to see how many fans travel from Oregon State and Gainesville, Florida for the December 17 game at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. For last year’s bowl game, attendance for Wisconsin vs Arizona State was announced at 32,515 — about 30,000 below what the stadium can hold for football. It was the first time the bowl game was staged at Allegiant Stadium after it was played at Sam Boyd Stadium for decades.
LVSportsBiz.com caught up with SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl Executive Director John Saccenti of ESPN, which owns this bowl game and 16 others.
LVSportsBiz.com: What will it be like to recruit fans from Oregon State and Florida to attend this game?
John Saccenti: The good news is we have a great matchup of teams that have never played each other in football. The challenge is that neither are within easy driving distance to Las Vegas. However, it has been 13 years since Oregon State has played in this game and Florida, of course, has never been to Las Vegas. There is also a tremendous amount of Gator alumni in the West who we hope will take advantage of a rare opportunity to see their team play in this part of the country. It’s going to be a fun mixture of fans from different ends of the country.
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LVSB: What’s the realistic attendance count for this game?
JS: This will be our first Las Vegas Bowl in Allegiant Stadium that is free of any COVID issues and we hope that fact, along with moving the game back to pre-Christmas, will see us increase attendance significantly over last year’s game. It is too early to project what that number may end up being but we’ve been tracking well.
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LVSB: Will there be any impact on the Las Vegas Bowl start on Dec. 17 if the Raiders vs Patriots game on Dec 18 is flexed from Sunday night to Sunday afternoon?
JS: Yes there would. ESPN already announced that if the Raiders game is moved to the early afternoon, that our kickoff time will move as well, going from 4:30 pm PT to 11:30 am PT. That is one of the many advantages of being one of the 17 bowl games owned by ESPN Events — there is some flexibility available in unique situations such as this one, if needed, but we’re hopeful there won’t be a flex.
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LVSB: Florida obviously wants a better team than 6-6 and fifth in its SEC division — how will this bowl game impact Florida’s ability to get a positive ending to its season?
JS: Florida is just in its first season under a new head coach in Billy Napier so I am sure they are excited to be coming to Las Vegas to face a highly ranked opponent. The Gators are a national brand and we are thrilled to have them and their fans here. This is exactly why we entered into the new matchup with the SEC and Big Ten rotating vs. the Pac-12 Conference. If you remember, Florida beat Pac-12 champion Utah in the first game of the season so their fans are certainly optimistic.
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LVSB: What is the TV ratings goal for this game?
JS: We don’t project ratings anymore. It will vary depending on the final kickoff time but if we do go at 4:30 pm — that’s prime time on the East Coast and we expect that the first Saturday of bowl season will draw a lot of viewers, especially with this matchup.
The Gators will be serving as the home team, becoming the first SEC program to play in the SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl since 2000.
Meanwhile the Beavers of the Pac-12 will make their third appearance and first in 13 years (2003, 2009).
This year, SRS Distribution will be in the second year of a five-year naming rights deal with ESPN, which puts on 17 bowl games that are used for programming for the sports network. SRS Distribution is a private company of independent roofing distributors based in McKinney, Texas.
Next year, the Las Vegas Bowl will be matching a team from the Pac-12 against a team from the Big Ten.