Charleston's odds of landing an NCAA college football bowl game in 2005 are improving everywhere except the Statehouse, where Democratic leaders were caught off guard by a quietly proposed $700,000 expenditure to help land the game.
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MIC SMITH/STAFF
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Caleb Wells, a junior at The Citadel, runs up the bleachers at Johnson Hagood Stadium on Thursday. House Republicans want to spend $700,000 to help pay for stadium renovations in an effort to land an NCAA college football bowl game in 2005.
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The Palmetto Bowl would be held at Johnson Hagood Stadium at The Citadel and pit a team from the Atlantic Coast Conference against a Conference USA team on ESPN television, which would retain ownership.
The game is by no means a certainty and depends on many factors, including money and the upcoming renovation of the stadium.
House Republicans on the budget committee have earmarked $700,000 to help pay for the renovations and the logistics of hosting the game, angering some Democrats, who say the money would be better spent on education or health care.
"In this budget year, there will have to be a justification for taking money away from needed programs, and I would like to hear what it is," said House Minority Leader James Smith, D-Columbia.
Republicans responded by saying the game would be an investment that would benefit all of South Carolina.
"This is an incredible opportunity for the state," said House Ways and Means Chairman Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston. "For $700,000, we get all the tax revenue coming into South Carolina. We get an ESPN office located in South Carolina, and we get three nationally televised games. The return on our investment is massively more."
Some estimate the project could pump as much a $48 million into the state's economy.
The proposed allocation, which would be funneled through the state Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, is expected to be debated in next week's budget discussions.
Besides getting the NCAA to sanction the game, the biggest hurdle is the stadium.
The Citadel is raising money to upgrade Johnson Hagood to a 22,000-seat stadium and has collected about $6 million in pledges toward a $10 million goal, enough to begin the first phase.
Because the NCAA requires 35,000 seats for a bowl game, funding for the extra seats would have to come from somewhere other than The Citadel, said school athletic director Les Robinson.
"We don't need 35,000 seats," he said.
Plans for the game started two years ago during the Southern Conference basketball tournament when Tom McQueeney of Mount Pleasant and ESPN marketing representative Dan Shoemaker started brainstorming about a bowl game in light of the stadium changes and Charleston's appeal. The target date for the game is the week before Christmas, Dec. 21 to 23 in 2005.
"The economic impact would be huge," said McQueeney, chairman of the Metro Sports Council's bowl committee, and chairman of the Johnson Hagood Stadium revitalization committee. "I can't imagine a better time from a merchant's standpoint to have that bowl game."
In addition to the bowl game, organizers want a military double-header basketball game involving Army, Navy, Air Force and The Citadel, and a football game involving historically black colleges to be played here every September or October.
McQueeney said to make it happen, it will take a commitment from the state and the community, noting that five or six different governmental agencies have been approached. "It's a tough time to raise money in Columbia now, and that's why it is a little bit controversial," he added.
ESPN spokesman Mike Humes declined to say much about the Charleston game discussions except that they have been "preliminary." Much of the decision on whether the game becomes a reality will come down to whether it is worth the financial investment for the network, any potential sponsors and the two targeted conferences, he said.
ESPN presently owns the rights to three bowl games: the Las Vegas Bowl, which has a payout of $800,000 per team; the Fort Worth Bowl, $750,000; and the Hawaii Bowl, $750,000.
Any game in Charleston would face stiff competition to attract fans. Twenty-eight bowl games are sanctioned by the NCAA, and three major bowl games are played within a few hours' drive of Charleston: the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla., the 2-year-old Continental Tire Bowl in Charlotte and the Peach Bowl in Atlanta.
Establishing a successful a bowl game is no small feat. At least 31 college bowl games have failed or morphed into other events since 1921, according to the College Football Data Warehouse. The last casualty was the short-lived Seattle Bowl, which was played in Washington state. It was sacked in 2003 after a two-year run. Media reports outlined money woes as a problem, and the NCAA's Football Certification Subcommittee last year declined to re-certify the game for the upcoming season. All bowl games are up for certification annually, meaning there is no guarantee of long-term support by the NCAA.
NCAA officials did not return phone messages Thursday, but Ken Haines, president of Raycom Sports, which owns the Continental Tire Bowl in Charlotte, said the NCAA looks for extensive community involvement and support, a title sponsor, a television contract for national broadcast, a stadium capable of showcasing the game and an alliance with conferences.
"If you have a successful year, that certification becomes easier and almost automatic," Haines said. "But if you struggle the year before, then you've got to show what you are doing differently to make it better."
Republican Gov. Mark Sanford has some reservations about the expenditure, saying he would prefer to see the state make its contribution as a grant, rather than a straight-out allocation through Parks, Recreation and Tourism.
"It's a worthwhile investment," Sanford's spokesman Will Folks said, "but it needs to be so that PRT could have a measure of accountability over how the money's spent."
