SHOCKER? NOT! INTERNATIONAL BOWL NO LONGER

This is really not surprising but what is surprising is that it lasted as long.
A financial bath no doubt for the organizers as each year multi freebies were involved and despite papering the house they could not get anyone to attend but family, friends and alumni.
So the question can be asked about the fickle fans of Toronto, American football may not be all that is cracked up to be such as the nonsense of "can't miss" proposition.
The next to go is the Bills series which is losing depending on the source anywhere form $5M-$10M US per game.

[url=http://www.torontosun.com/sports/football/2010/03/24/13349696.html]http://www.torontosun.com/sports/footba ... 49696.html[/url]

Good on the people of Toronto not to go to something if they don't want to even though Rogers Corporation touts it as "an event" or whatever else Phil Lind tells us what we're supposed to hear and want.

Look, I have no doubt that any NFL team that is Toronto's team would do well but so would a team in Edmonton or many other Canadian cities, big deal. Roger's should have laid back and tried to get the Bills if they wanted when they came on sale. Or really made it a NFL/CFL event with offering great packages for Argos season ticket holders and having an "Argos night" at a game and introducing some of the old Argo players and Bills players when they played a game I think it was way back in the 60's. And same with the TiCats.

Now it is just a "non overpriced event" that has little buzz and few people are into it and even many die hard Bills fans in Toronto don't go because they'd rather spend their money at Bills games in Buffalo. I don't blame them at all. The Bills have their culture and that culture is in Buffalo, not in Toronto, Rogers can't buy it as such until they actually own the team and move them to Toronto which we'll see if that happens when the Bills become available.

Not surprising for sure …really in September much of the US is into college football and there are just too many homers who really believe their lame teams are national championship material, but by November interest wanes except in areas where it is a local cultural event of sorts such as the American South, parts of the West Coast (Pac 10), Texas, and my alma mater Notre Dame. By November at most 8 teams out of more than 110 are playing quality football overall, and when all those dumb bowl games roll around perhaps 3 or 4 of them remain of popular interest. I am hardly alone as not as sold on college football as I used to be in the era from the late 1980s to the middle of last decade, and the tradition of New Year’s Day for bowl games is no longer popularly relevant but to these alums, homers, and diehard college football fans. TV ratings are way down as well too.

Going forward on Saturdays I’ll take the CFL in September through November over most college football for that matter lest the two worst CFL teams are playing each other.

The International Bowl is dead....also in the news, a tree fell in the forest with nobody around.....the question is, which event was noticed by more people :lol: :lol:

The international bowl didn't work because of the conference tie ins it had. Nobody cares about the MAC (3 place mac team) and the Big East (6 place team) isn't much more appealing. Now if the game had the Big Ten opponent, and a higher ranked big east or an ACC opponent I think it would have been more popular.

I think 45,000 to 50,000 would have watched a Northwestern (4), Wisconsin (5) Michigan State (6) vs. Pitt (2) West Virginia (3), Rutgers (4).

I would have gone.

Like bowling and soccer, NCAA is a niche interest as a sport in Canada.
The TV audiences confirm family and friends basically.

It’s funny, I know a guy who says he’s a big NCAA fan here in Hamilton and roots for the Nittany Lions. So I ask him if he’s ever gone to a game and he says no and he’d never heard of the International Bowl and he doesn’t even watch football on TV from what he says. Weird.

I say not weird at all, and tell your friend that Paolo of Notre Dame said …ah well better leave that off this forum. :stuck_out_tongue:

Ugo said it right too and what he states would apply to almost anywhere in the US for that matter.

Believe me no one but family, friends, and serious bojacks who are not even some of the Penn St alumni or fans give a hoot in the US about that game or most bowl games for that matter.

Most folks into college football care about action involving their local teams during the regular season at home and on the road especially against the rivals and tougher opponents. Many a road trip are taken for those games too. The diehard alumni like me will watch all games at least on TV.

And then when the bowl games come around any more, even alumni like me don’t care when it is not a BCS game or at least a compelling matchup.

Most of the bowl games might as well be the dull losers’ bracket of most any tournament. :thdn: And that BCS mess of course let’s not get started with that. :roll:

I'll also add to the international bowl series defense, is that a lot of the past match ups especially last years (NI and SFU) are away for the locals to come up too. The year before Had u of B which I believe brought in a decent crowd. Like I said if the match ups were better they'll have no trouble getting +40K to games. 10 from each school and I bet they could get another 20K from NCAA fans in the GTA.

You may be right, but the real question is: How many of those fans would actually be from Canada?

I doubt that would matter to the organizers. I think one of the goals of getting these American things in Toronto is recognition in the United States (because getting recognized for our own accomplishments is too much work. We’d actually have to have some.). If 45-50,000 Americans… er… non-Canadians showed up to the bowl game and said “Hey we didn’t have such a bad time attending a sporting event of our own making hosted by a city in a country that doesn’t even have any teams that could qualify for it!” the organizers would have considered it a resounding success, probably more so than if the majority in the stands were Canadians.

The international bowl series was a tourism driven event. The series started a few years after the SARS scare and when passports were need to get across the borders. It was never intended for locals. It was to promote Toronto on to the US population. The problem is the bowl tie-ins MAC teams and some big east schools don't have the following that would travel distances.

A majourity of tourists to Toronto come from the United States. So I can see why they tired this.

Ugo is onto the core issue here well beyond the International Bowl, for on that basis in these economic times a whole lot more bowl games need be jettisoned and have diluted the college game all the same. In NCAA college football they are already at what the NCAA basketball tournament would be with the idea to expand it -- a diluted product for all.

Believe me, even many of the diehard college football fans down here don't care at all about bowl games unless it is half of the corrupt BCS games, a local game in which one of their teams are participating such that they don't have to travel far, or a relatively uncommon non-BCS solid matchup.

Even New Year's Day has become for most seasons basically "Rose Bowl Day" when the best Pac10 team is not otherwise playing for the national championship. Few but alums and diehards care about the other games that day, and even the NHL Winter Classic gets better ratings than all or most football games except the Rose Bowl.

And for that matter the only time folks en masse care a whole lot about the Rose Bowl any more is when any one of USC, Michigan, or Ohio State are playing in it.

I disagree. The people in Toronto who courted the NCAA to come there were trying to show the world that Canadians were more interested in “american” football so they could use it as a stepping stone for acquiring an nfl team. And with Canadians not interested, I think that is why it failed.

That bowl was going to get mac schools because of the pay out.To be honest toronto doesnt have the biggest enough stadium too host a BIG NCAA bowl game you need atleast 75,000 to 110,000 depending on the team.The international wouldnt work anyway because thats like me trying to root for a CFL team.This september Ohio State plays Miami Florida the game is sold out at 107,000 and there will be another 100,000 without tickets in Columbus for the game.If Ohio State came to Toronto it would bring 50,000 to 100,000 based on how close Ohio is too Canada and that Toronto would be a nice city to party in.I think this bowl failed based on pay out and the teams who played.

Why not promote a true "International Bowl"? Queens vs- ___________ From where_ever U.S.A.!that would sell tickets. :cowboy:

I’d be all for that, but of course the question is whose rules again?

I’d be all for compromise rules with the Canadian rules in place but for two key exceptions, so even with only these two exceptions likely it would never happen:

  1. 4 Downs
  2. Teams line up on LOS not 1 yard neutral zone, meaning the neutral zone is the length of the football

I don’t think that’s too much to ask if all the other Canadian rules apply in order to make for a ton of offence and special teams! :thup:

Pablo and see a blowout.Not being mean Queens really cant compete with most Division 1 schools and I dont care what rules you use.How many Cj Spillers have they faced this year?Football in Canada isnt the same as it is in the states ont he college level.Queens doesnt have the skilled players to compete with most ncaa division schools and too be honest for a big ten,sec,or pac ten school that stadium in toronto is too small the host the game.We would bring 50,000 to 75,000 from Ohio alone if it was Ohio State.

I'm not talking about the international bowl, becoming another Cotton Bowl, or Holiday bowl, more like a Champs Sports bowl. Former know as Citrus bowl. (which attendance last season was 55K)

A team like OSU wouldn't be playing, and if they did I doubt 50,000 Buckeye fans would come up and watch an 7-5 (4-4 or 3-5) Buckeye team. (which would be considered a failure) Play against a 8-4 Big east team.

A 5th place big ten vs. a third/four place Big East. RC could hold over 55,000 for football.

over 40K went to UCONN and U of B game. I don't think that was consider a failure. The big east left cause the pay out wasn't great and probably got tired a beating the shit out of MAC Teams.

I would have love to see how USF fair against Wisconsin.

Well one could dream.

Slite over confident