Since its debut in 1978, the Holiday Bowl has earned the reputation as one of the year’s most exciting college football games. That makes it an awfully attractive property, so the 2023 edition will have a brand new title sponsor.
In an announcement made on the deck of USS Midway Museum Thursday -- complete with a skydiver flying in the new logo -- officials unveiled the annual San Diego tradition is now known as the DIRECTV Holiday Bowl. Bowl representatives declined to comment on how long the new contract will last.
"It's important for San Diego. We're a non-profit, we're all about driving tourism, and we've done that with the Holiday Bowl since 1978," says Mark Neville, CEO of Sports San Diego. "That's not going to change but we really look forward to elevating this game."
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Previous sponsors included SeaWorld, Thrifty Car Rental, Pacific Life Insurance Company, National University and most recently, San Diego County Credit Union, which was the title sponsor since 2017.
This year’s game between teams from the ACC and Pac 12 will kick off on Wednesday, Dec. 27 at 5:00 p.m. at Petco Park, and that brings up another unknown: if the Pac 12 doesn’t exist after this year, who will be playing the Holiday Bowl in future years? That’s something the folks with Sports San Diego will be working on as conference realignment continues to play out.
"Those are conversations that are taking place right now," says Neville. "I cannot tell you who is going to be in our game next year as we sit here today. We have a relationship with the ACC and then with what's going on with the Pac 12, we'll see how it plays out."
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Neville touts the popularity of the game and the city it's played in and doesn't seem concerned with losing any quality if they have to change a conference affiliation.
"(San Diego) is the best destination in the bowl world, as far as I'm concerned and as far as many are concerned. People want to be here, people want to be in the DIRECTV Holiday Bowl, so we're sorting through that right now."
Tickets to the DIRECTV Holiday Bowl also went on sale on Thursday morning on www.HolidayBowl.com.
