Australian Bowl?

[Coop Cat]

What the hell:

[ASUHATER!]

That would be great Larry. A bowl no fans can actually go to. 17 hour time difference.

[CatsbyAZ]

We already tried this crap with the Diamondbacks playing the Dodgers in Sydney last year. Enough with "exposure" experiments. Globalization is overrated.

[Merkin]

Reads like Larry wants a paid vacation to Oz and will being with him any team not named Arizona.

[Chicat]

That would be great Larry. A bowl no fans can actually go to. 17 hour time difference.

How many families of the players could afford to go?

[UAEebs86]

Anybody remember the Mirage Bowl (later renamed)? It was a regular season game played in Tokyo.

We lost to Stanford there, last game of the regular season in 1986. My sister went over
there in 1985 with the U$C band and brought me a bag back that had all the scores on it with UofA - Stanford TBD. Still have it somewhere.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Cola_ ... _football)

[ASUHATER!]

That would be great Larry. A bowl no fans can actually go to. 17 hour time difference.

How many families of the players could afford to go?

my point exactly. only Jim click and a couple rich boosters would go. Even if Texas played Ohio state in that bowl only 1000 US fans would attend

[splitsecond]

that is the worst fucking idea I have ever heard.

[azgreg]

that is the worst fucking idea I have ever heard.

Signed: the guy who invented this thing:

[catgrad97]

Anybody remember the Mirage Bowl (later renamed)? It was a regular season game played in Tokyo.

We lost to Stanford there, last game of the regular season in 1986. My sister went over
there in 1985 with the U$C band and brought me a bag back that had all the scores on it with UofA - Stanford TBD. Still have it somewhere.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Cola_ ... _football)

I was just going to bring that up. Had to stay up until 2 a.m. to watch Darrin Nelson run all over us right before the Aloha Bowl win.

Stupid idea. Then and now.

[RichardCranium]

That would be great Larry. A bowl no fans can actually go to. 17 hour time difference.

I'd go.

[ASUHATER!]

That would be great Larry. A bowl no fans can actually go to. 17 hour time difference.

I'd go.

Well you'd be one of about 30 Arizona fans at a bowl there.

[ChattyPaddy]

How is this a good idea? From TV ratings alone no one would be watching because it would probably be played at 3am here.

[ASUHATER!]

How is this a good idea? From TV ratings alone no one would be watching because it would probably be played at 3am here.

Well if the game kicked off at like 11 am on sunday in Australia It would be a like 6-7 pm Saturday kickoff on the west coast.

[RichardCranium]

How is this a good idea? From TV ratings alone no one would be watching because it would probably be played at 3am here.

Well if the game kicked off at like 11 am on sunday in Australia It would be a like 6-7 pm Saturday kickoff on the west coast.

Quite so - and late December weather would be just like Tucson in late August.

The venue would be either "Docklands Stadium" (currently branded Etihad Stadium) which has a retractable roof and seats 52,000 or more likely "The Melbourne Rectangular Stadium" (currently branded "AAMI Park") which seats 29,500 (for Rugby).

Can't have it in Melbourne between Christmas and New Year's - the 'Boxing Day Test' Cricket match starts the day after Christmas (Boxing Day) and runs for 3 to 5 days and dominates any other sporting event in Australia for that time.

The other problem is that there isn't actually anyone in town from the middle of December to the end of January or so, especially on weekends (unless they are going to "The Test"). Every body goes down to their beach house or country property or boating or something in order to get out of town.

[azthrillhouse]

It's a horrible idea - bowl games give fans a very small window of opportunity to make travel plans. If they said Arizona was playing Stanford in Melbourne in September 2018, I might be intrigued enough to start planning and budgeting for a major family vacation around that (much as I am for Hawaii 2019).

Saying Arizona is playing Iowa State in the Real Outback Bowl....after a meh 7-5 season...with a week to buy tickets? Yeah, forget it.

p.s. good naming suggestions here:
http://www.everydayshouldbesaturday.com ... e-tim-tams
- Battle In The OutPac

- Mad Cats: Beyond Carrier Dome (in case of Arizona/Syracuse only)

- Maybe A Dingo Ate Your QB

- Waltzing MAC-tilda (requires MAC opponent)

- Bud Foster: Australian For Fear (if Virginia Tech is selected)

- Tie Me ASU Down Sport

- Crocodile SC

- Oh Right That Place In Tampa, Run By The Idiots Who'd Never Even Been To Our Country And Might As Well Have Named It "Funny Accent Ponderosa," Good Thing We Have Our Own Version Of That Bullshit

[RichardCranium]

It's a horrible idea - bowl games give fans a very small window of opportunity to make travel plans.

Clearly they would not be counting on anyone traveling from the USA just to attend this game (except family maybe).

The point would be to get Aussies to attend the game and more importantly introduce NCAA football to Australians to make games on TV more popular. Melbournians will turn out in droves for just about ANY competition. They got huge crowds for the International Darts Championship last year and there were riots in the stands. They will sit through 5 days of a Cricket Test in 100degreee plus weather in crowds of 100,000 (this game, if it happens will NOT be played at the MCG - I guarantee that). Women's netball draws more than men's basketball. Field Hockey gets big crowds for crying out loud. Work out a way to bet on two flies crawling up a wall and you will draw hundreds if not thousands to watch.

I for one would LOVE to see the PAC-12 Network bought in by Foxtel (THE Cable TV company in Australia) and Austar ( THE satellite TV company in Australia ) which gets its content from Foxtel (Austar is probably owned by FoxTel, I haven't checked). I have to assume the game, if it happened would be chiefly promoted by FoxTel in Australia.

[Puerco]

I think the commercial people behind this idea underestimate just how little people outside of the US care about US sports, particularly about the ones not played elsewhere (football & to some extent baseball). I also think they underestimate the fact that no one understands just why universities in the US have major sports programs, so the assumption is that university sports would not be done at a high level (think semi-pro baseball level).

Given the assumption of poor quality play and a lack of interest in the sport itself, why on earth would any NCAA bowl game be played outside North America?

[azthrillhouse]

Even if you could argue that the Aussies would buy tickets and watch it on TV and therefore gain exposure for Pac-12 football (which I question - my experience traveling internationally is that there is significant interest in the NFL and NBA but college sports don't resonate in the slightest), I think you make it a regular season game, not a bowl game, because of the ability to plan ahead. Take away the fan element - even the logistics for the teams themselves will be brutal. Our team brings its equipment to games in a semi truck....trying to get that to Oz on short notice isn't going to be cheap or easy.

p.s. RC, I agree, it would be crazy to hold it in the MCG. That place is MASSIVE. I was there for an AFL playoff semifinal and it was probably only 2/3rd filled.

p.p.s the relative popularity of netball there is perhaps the best argument for having a bowl game there....if they'll watch that, they'll watch anything.

[ASUHATER!]

Yeah don't college sports not really exist outside of the US? Hard enough to get people into American pro sports and turn add college on top of that.

[Merkin]

UA should send their team to play Aussie Rules Football.

[azpenguin]

It's perfect. Send ASU. They'll feel right at home in the ol' prison colony.

[Gilbertcat]

Outback Bowl beware! Melbourne Bowl “good to go” in 2016

The game would not take place until 2016, according to Brett McMurphy of ESPN.com. It is also still just a hot discussion point right now between bowl organizers and representatives from the Pac-12 and Mountain West Conference.

http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.co ... o-in-2016/

This is so stupid. It will be a ton of money to the schools and little payout to support a lower tier pac v mw game. It would be the same as if they sent a lower tier rugby team to the U.S.

[ASUHATER!]

And like the Australians on here said, it will be during the summer so be hot as balls and during the tourist season where a lot of locals are out on vacation

[azthrillhouse]

And like the Australians on here said, it will be during the summer so be hot as balls and during the tourist season where a lot of locals are out on vacation

Normally it would be nice, average high in December-January is in the high 70's F. Melbourne's climate is somewhere between San Francisco and Los Angeles, roughly. Though they do sometimes get some freakishly hot spurts where it'll get Arizona hot for a couple of days, that's not the norm. The holiday season would still be a factor of course.

Still can't believe this is being discussed. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Adding bowl games in general is dumb, but especially a bowl in Oz. It would be a great experience for the players, but that doesn't make it a good idea.

If they're so determined, and it's the Pac-12 and MWC, why not make it an August game, since it seems like there are already plenty of Pac-12-MWC matches planned - just shift the site.