Arizona Bowl officials hope afternoon start will create better fan experience

During the inaugural Nova Home Loans Arizona Bowl in December, Ali Farhang and some of his staff members visited patrons attending the game at Arizona Stadium. Farhang and his crew thanked them for coming and quizzed them about the experience. The feedback included a desire to begin the game in the afternoon.

“It really resonated,” said Farhang, the chairperson of TD4Tucson, the newly formed local nonprofit that will run the bowl. “It made sense.”

And so it will be in Year 2 of the Arizona Bowl: The game will kick off in the afternoon, sometime between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m., on Friday, Dec. 30. That was among several announcements made by bowl officials at a news conference Thursday afternoon at Hotel Congress.

The Friday-afternoon kickoff leads perfectly into the New Year’s holiday weekend and will allow fans to bring their families to the game. Mainly, it will allow Tucson to show off what Farhang described as one of its “greatest assets” — the weather.

Last year’s game —which took place on Tuesday, Dec. 29 — began at 5:37 p.m. It was 44 degrees at kickoff. The announced attendance was 20,425.

“If you were at the game last year, the suites were packed,” Farhang said. “It was warm and comfortable. If we can get that kind of environment in the stadium too …”

No one can predict the weather, but starting the game in the afternoon provides a better chance of warm, comfortable conditions (and the only chance for sunshine). The average high temperature in Tucson on Dec. 30 is 64 degrees.

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The exact kickoff time is expected to be announced within the next two weeks. Arizona Bowl officials are working with the University of Arizona to make sure there are no conflicts with basketball games.

Other Arizona Bowl news included:

• The announcement of four-year agreements with the Mountain West and Sun Belt conferences. Last year’s game pitted two Mountain West schools, Colorado State and Nevada, against each other because the Sun Belt didn’t have enough bowl-eligible teams. The hope is that won’t be the case this year. Sun Belt commissioner Karl Benson was among those attending Thursday’s news conference.
• A multiyear media partnership with Campus Insiders, which again will stream the game on multiple platforms. A deal with a television partner is close to completion and should be announced soon, Farhang said.
• The change of ownership from the Arizona Sports & Entertainment Commission to TD4Tucson. ASEC will continue to provide consultation and assist in game-day operations.
• The retention of Nova Home Loans as the bowl’s title sponsor.
• The addition of former Arizona football coach Dick Tomey, who recently moved back to Tucson, as a consultant.

Farhang and others believe having more lead time will make the overall bowl experience better in Year 2. Not that there were many complaints.

Mike Feder, the newly named executive director of the Arizona Bowl, relayed a conversation he had with Nevada coach Brian Polian about last year’s game.

“What can we do better?” Feder asked Polian. “What can we improve on?”

“Nothing,” Polian told him.