Atlanta, and Black College Football


Deuce

Deuce

Well-Known Member
First it was the Heritage Bowl, and now the Pioneer Bowl.

Even though the following article speaks well of the support the Pioneer Bowl received from the City of Atlanta (the government I assume), they still did not get sufficient support from the people of Atlanta, in the form of buying tickets and attending the game. If they had, this game would not be moving.

The Atlanta Classic is successful because fans from FAMU and TSU show up in large numbers, consequently a huge local response is not needed as much.

At any rate, another black college game that was supposed to be a sure bet in Atlanta is looking for greener pastures.


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Pioneer Bowl Moves to Tampa
Festivities Set For December 13-15, 2002
November 9, 2002

Atlanta ? The Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) and the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (CIAA) announce that the 6th Annual Pioneer Bowl Weekend is set for Friday, December 13 through Sunday, December 15, 2002 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. Kickoff time is set for Noon on Sunday, December 15.

The Pioneer Bowl began in 1997. The first two games were played at Herndon Stadium and then moved to the Georgia Dome for the next three games. Herndon Stadium and the Georgia Dome are both excellent venues and provided a great atmosphere for the bowl game. The City of Atlanta has been the only home to the Pioneer Bowl and the SIAC and CIAA are extremely appreciative for City?s support of the game.

The move to Tampa, Florida is another step in evolution of the Pioneer Bowl. With the assistance of Jericho Communications Media Group, the parent company of the Black College Sports Network, the change is part of an overall effort to brand the event, capitalize on the regional strength of the game and provide a festive atmosphere and good experience for the student-athletes, students, administrators, alumni, fans and supporters of the CIAA and the SIAC. The overall goal is to strengthen the connection for students, fans, alumni and sponsors while reflecting the athletic and academic excellence and values personified by the CIAA and the SIAC.

Along with the SIAC and the CIAA, the City of Tampa and the Black College Sports Network will develop an alliance with historically black colleges and universities. The potential economic impact of the event makes the alliance attractive and beneficial to all parties.

Individual tickets prices for the game range from $15.00 to $50.00. Travel packages and weekend ticket packages can be purchased. For more information visit www.BlackCollegeTravel.com or www.JerichoBroadcasting.com/BCSN, or call 1-877-875-8484.

The Pioneer Bowl is the only post-season black college bowl game in the nation
 
That aint Atl's fault. Can you blame the average fan who has no connections to either school for not going to those games?

I don't. Just like I doubt if the average Johnny down in Tampa will give a hoot about that game.

And I disagree about the Atl Classic with FAMU and TnState. A whole lot of locals go to that, along with fans from those schools. Those are well known schools, the game is advertised NONSTOP on tv and radio, they have all kind of events with local flavor, the parade, etc.

As far as the Heritage Bowl, I don't think the folks of Atl are to blame for that either. There were several problems with that game (#1 vs #3, holiday dates, fans from competing schools didnt show up. They got to the point where they were even having the HB on a week day in the afternoon. What is that?
 



Anytime you have a city that promotes itself as "The Black Mecca", has over ONE MILLION BLACK FOLK, and several black colleges and black professionals, yes you can blame the citizens of Atlanta for not supporting these games.

Also, I did not say that locals do not attend the Atlanta Classic, I simply said that that game relies less on local attendance because so many fans come there from the respective schools.

As for the match-ups in the Heritige Bowl, sure it may have been #1 vs #3, but that was a very good #1 Southern team vs a very good #3 Hampton team. Surely, that game should have been well attended by the locals.
 
Originally posted by Deuce
Surely, that game should have been well attended by the locals.
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I don't know but If the SU folks didn't care enough to show up for it and it was their school playing , why should folks who are not affiliated with either school care enough to show up.

I think the fans of the teams playing should make up the vast majority of the fans at a game. Sure, it should be supported by locals, but the backbone of attendance gotta come from the schools playing.
 
MH,

I agree that the majority of the fans should come from the respective schools, but these games were moved to Atlanta for a reason, and that was to supposedly capitalize on the large successful black population of the city.

That didn't happen.

If you are not concerned about local support, then the game could be put in any city.
 
Originally posted by Deuce
If you are not concerned about local support, then the game could be put in any city.
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Another school of thought would be that the game is put in a city where fans would want to travel to. (like the Orange Bowl is in Miami, because fans would want to travel to Miami, not because of the fans in Miami or the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, because fans would want to travel there during the winter, etc.

I agree that the Heritage Bowl and Pioneer Bowl didn't get that much support from the locals. But I think you have to look at a lot of other stuff first.
 
Originally posted by mighty hornet

Another school of thought would be that the game is put in a city where fans would want to travel to.
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MH,

That's an excellent point.

But I believe it applies more to PWC's than HBCU's. I say this because fans of PWC's travel in droves. They don't need local support, they simply want a desirable destination.

HBCU fans normally cannot afford to travel as much, especially around Christmas, therefore it is imperative that the game be placed in a city that will provide local support to offset the shortfall of fans from the respective schools.

On the surface, Atlanta looks like the perfect city to provide local fan support. Unfortunately, it has not worked out that way.
 
Originally posted by Deuce
On the surface, Atlanta looks like the perfect city to provide local fan support. Unfortunately, it has not worked out that way.
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I agree.
But it's a lot of factors at work. Just like you mention, its Christmas, and just like "our" fans might not be willing to travel then, you know "we" aint gon be too willing to shell out $$$ for a game where our own alma mater isnt playing.
Also, as far as the Heritage Bowl, they were just all over the place with a game date and time. And sad to say, the same damn team was here every year (SU)

The local marketing wasn't what it should have been either to attract fans who could probably be "convinced" to attend with some good marketing. Sure, the diehards would showup, but not the avg. Joe. A lil marketing may have changed that. Ever since GA Power signed on to sponsor the Atl Classic, the local marketing has been super. That's one of the reason, the attendance has skyrocketed in the last couple of years.

The Heritage Bowl never did that much marketing, even when McDonald's sponsored it.
 
Well I went to the Atlanta Classic because it was an exciting game. I went to the first Heritage Bowl and it was one of the most boring games i've ever been to. I'm not even going to comment on the Pioneer Bowl.
 
My .02

I believe it is more the marketing effort and whose interest is it to make the game successful. The Atlanta Football Classic has so much going for it, it's not even funny.

1) An excellent matchup between two teams that are equally talented and the Atl is geographically centered between the schools to represent a true nuetral site.

2) The game is put on by the 100 Black Men of Atlanta...these brothers have unbelievable influence and ability to get sponsor checks written because of their status within ATL Fortune 500 companies.

3) The management team of the 100 is unbelievably tight. They don't get caught up in the politics of the schools like what happens at the Bayou Classic. They are professional and they know what they are doing. On a side note, this game is now so big, they are about to land a major sponsor just for the halftime show!!

4) The HB did not have the proper mgmt, vision, marketing, nor cooperation from the MEAC...we know that story. The game was moved around to meet TV considerations. No Bowl game is ever on the same day (Sat or Sun) each year...it's a calendar issue first and foremost. If the 31st is on a Mon, then that's when the game is played. If NBC or ESPN only has a 1:00 pm slot available, then that's what you get.

5) Nobody gives a dayum about SIAC or CIAA football. Let's be real on that!! The whole idea about any game is the matchup!

Matchups Matchups Matchups!!

It's no different than if TSU faces Valley in the SWAC Championship game. How many Alabama folk really gone come out to that...beyond the diehards?

Just be real about this isht and stop wishing!!;)
 
Atlanta is not to blame for the failure of any game. The Peach Bowl had the same problem for years until they changed their marketing and got very regional in their focus (SEC/ACC match-up). The locals account for a very small percentage of the attendees at that game. The vast majority of attendees come from the schools and their respective cities.

DUECE
They don't bring games here because we have a lot of black folks and they want the locals to come out. They bring games here because they think that the team's fans will want to come to Atlanta because it's the "Black Mecca". So don't get it twisted.

If you think that, because we have a lot of black folks, that you can just put anything out there and we'll buy it then you'd better think again. If the schools own fans don't think enough of the team to come support it then why in the world should we?


The GA Power ATL Football Classic has been packing them in for years. That's because the fans support the game, not the locals. The game was averaging around 40K in attendance for years. Then they decided to go after support from locals. The fact that they already had a successful product made the locals come and check it out. That pushed avg attendance to around 60K.

These are the facts.
 
Originally posted by mighty hornet
That aint Atl's fault. Can you blame the average fan who has no connections to either school for not going to those games?

I don't. Just like I doubt if the average Johnny down in Tampa will give a hoot about that game.

And I disagree about the Atl Classic with FAMU and TnState. A whole lot of locals go to that, along with fans from those schools. Those are well known schools, the game is advertised NONSTOP on tv and radio, they have all kind of events with local flavor, the parade, etc.

As far as the Heritage Bowl, I don't think the folks of Atl are to blame for that either. There were several problems with that game (#1 vs #3, holiday dates, fans from competing schools didnt show up. They got to the point where they were even having the HB on a week day in the afternoon. What is that?
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1. You right about people not going to gmae because of no connection to the schools.
2. The advertising of the classic is a big part. You're 1 & 3 to the HB, and it easier to advertise a classic for some reason just because everyone already know what 2 schools are in it
 
Originally posted by Deuce
Anytime you have a city that promotes itself as "The Black Mecca", has over ONE MILLION BLACK FOLK, and several black colleges and black professionals, yes you can blame the citizens of Atlanta for not supporting these games.
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I can feel you on that point. Atl is supposed to be the crunkest spot for black folk, that was the big assumption in hosting the game there. It should have had more support local and non-local.
 



Originally posted by mighty hornet

I don't know but If the SU folks didn't care enough to show up for it and it was their school playing , why should folks who are not affiliated with either school care enough to show up.

I think the fans of the teams playing should make up the vast majority of the fans at a game. Sure, it should be supported by locals, but the backbone of attendance gotta come from the schools playing.
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there should be loal support, that where the crowd often comes from at classics
 
What does being the crunkest spot for black folk have to do with anything? That's like sayin black folk should pack the civic center for a black play that isn't interesting in the least bit just because its a black play.
 
Originally posted by unknown1
What does being the crunkest spot for black folk have to do with anything? That's like sayin black folk should pack the civic center for a black play that isn't interesting in the least bit just because its a black play.
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The Heritage Bowl was still SWAC vs MEAC football. It's supposedly not supposed to get any better than that.
 
According to all the people who come to most of our football games only for the band. Last I checked HBCU football was a big deal especially when a good SWAC football team and band are involved.I mean something people like to see in a place they like to be should be a sure winner. ATL should be one of the few places where both SWAC and MEAC schools have a following.
 
It should be? Why.....how many SWAC or MEAC teams are in the ATL area? Why should we automatically go just because it's a SWAC/MEAC game? Why should we go if it isn't advertised worth a ISHT? Why should we want to go to a supposed "championship" game where the #1 team of one conference is playing the #3 team of another conference? Doesn't really seem like that big of an interest to me. Maybe if they get wise and let the 100 black men take over it, it'll actually draw a few people. Can't blame it on the city when you have other games that are huge draws, just because the Heritage Bowl isn't. Hell the high school football semi-final drew damn near 40,000 people in the dome.:lmao:
 
Originally posted by unknown1
It should be? Why.....how many SWAC or MEAC teams are in the ATL area? Why should we automatically go just because it's a SWAC/MEAC game? Why should we go if it isn't advertised worth a ISHT? Why should we want to go to a supposed "championship" game where the #1 team of one conference is playing the #3 team of another conference? Doesn't really seem like that big of an interest to me. Maybe if they get wise and let the 100 black men take over it, it'll actually draw a few people. Can't blame it on the city when you have other games that are huge draws, just because the Heritage Bowl isn't. Hell the high school football semi-final drew damn near 40,000 people in the dome.:lmao:
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Because ATL is on East Coast, so the MEAC schools should have a following. It's between some of the schools. Then you have SWAC schools who have performe in ATL before and have fans in GA. It's not like having a MEAC school coming all the way to Texas. ATL is close enough to both SWAC and MEAC to where people in ATL have knowledge of both conferenes. But yes it does have to be advertised, and if they didn't, then that is the fault of the Heritage Bowl promotoers because even if people want to go to an HBCU football game, they have to know when and where one is. You do have to promote it. #1 vs #3 might not seem appealing. But there have been plenty of classics over the years where one team has played a team they overmatch year after year. But you are right, it does have to be promoted. And as I said earlier the HB lacked the certainty and rivalrie aspect of a fixed-team classic.
 
Let's be real about this thing. Bama State and NCA&T played in the first HB at Miami's Joe Robby stadium. This game was played in Dec. at least a week before Christmas. Only 7,000 plus people showed up. This game was advertised all summer long. And I was there. I thought black people in Miami would be dying to see HBCU's, well! that didn't happen. The game lost money. The next two years the game was played in Tallahasse on FAMU's campus. Well! black people didn't sellout a stadium at the time that may have seated no more than 19,000-22,000 people. Then there came the "Black Mecca" (Atlanta). It's not even there anymore. Now! we move a totally less interested Pioneer Bowl to southeast Florida (Tampa). And a lot of Tuskegee people are already saying that it's to far to travel. Read my lips and read it well. The Pioneer Bowl and Heritage Bowl are doomed. One of these games can be moved to possibly B'ham. Since we are testing different cities, marketing wise, we need a city with a large population base. Remember, we're talking about black folks.
Florida isn't the answer for black people not unless it's the Florida Classic. And it comprises mostly of Florida residence. Read my lips again, Tampa isn't the answer for the Pioneer Bowl.
 
I think that a lot of support doesn't come from the A-town is mainly we probably have to work or if not when you get a day off from working trying to pay this high azz rent or mortgage you ain't trying to go to no game nor put out any more cheese. I hate to say it, but if it ain't the braves or GT or the Falcons if they are winning only. People are not going to come. Hands down. They don't want to sit in traffic also. Parking is sky high, then you might have gotten jacked when you come from the game. Its to many obsticales that are in the way. My exscue is I am a DJ and I work on Saturdays. I couldn't go to the MOB vs Gram game becse I had to work. Let's see Game or my family eats? I choose to feed my family.

I would have loved to gone to the game, but I couldn't.
 
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