The common complaint from couch potatoes is that all you seemingly need to qualify for a bowl game is six wins and a driver’s license. They snub their nose at the Motor City Bowl and the Humanitarian Bowl and the Bowl.
So how does a Mile High Bowl grab you?
With the avalanche of 34 bowl games beginning Saturday with the New Mexico Bowl, another prospective bowl is brewing in our streets. Ted Tseng, account manager of corporate partnerships for Kroenke Sports Enterprises, is trying to bring a bowl game to Denver.
It has about as much chance as Colorado making a BCS bowl next season, but it’s not stopping Tseng, despite the $3 million required. The 1997 Wake Forest grad still ranks his alma mater’s shocking appearance in the 2007 Orange Bowl as “one of the greatest moments of my life.”
While playing in Denver in December may not rank atop other people’s lives — those who don’t need counseling, at least — Tseng will settle for a second-tier bowl.
“I think Denver needs one,” he said. “Denver doesn’t have an annual sports event anymore. In The International, you had an annual event. Denver has one of the few cities I know that has a strong, passionate following for college football. Every single bar has a team watch (party).”
With the state of college football in this state, it would be nice to see some decent college football north of Colorado Springs. Tseng wants to pair Mountain West and Big 12 teams. However, when I met Tseng over coffee in LoDo recently, it was 10 degrees outside. That’s his point.
“People are coming to Denver, to the mountains, for vacation during Christmas and New Year’s,” he said. “Why not partner that with a bowl game?”
Roger Kenney, Denver’s promoter extraordinaire, tried this five years ago but met resistance in Boulder. Current Colorado AD Mike Bohn said he’s interested, but the city isn’t. Invesco Field management says it could handle a September game, such as the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game in Atlanta, but the city seems content with the Colorado-CSU game.
“As you are well-aware, there’s a surplus of marginal bowl games,” said Steve Sander, director of strategic marketing for the city of Denver. “What the world doesn’t need is another No. 4 ACC vs. No. 5 Big 12.
“I just think it’s very far-fetched.”
