Chick-fil-A Bowl Re-writes Its Record Book

 Atlanta Bowl Sets New Standards for Attendance, Sellouts, Payout, FanFest and Charitable Contributions

ATLANTA (Jan. 12, 2007) – The 2006 edition of the Chick-fil-A Bowl turned out to be the best in the Atlanta bowl’s 39-year history – setting all-time records in five categories – and served to raise the future standard for a bowl game that has truly arrived on the national college football scene.

The Dec. 30 match-up between Georgia and Virginia Tech, the game’s 10th straight sellout, drew a Chick-fil-A Bowl-record and new Georgia Dome-record crowd of 75,406 fans to watch Georgia come from behind in dramatic fashion and defeat a heavily favored Virginia Tech team 31-24. The only two bowls to draw more fans this year were the Rose and Sugar Bowls. The Georgia Dome’s previous record was 75,125 for the 2003 Chick-fil-A Bowl between Clemson and Tennessee.

The Chick-fil-A Bowl is still the highest-attended non-BCS bowl in the country over the last 10 years.

Chick-fil-A Bowl records set this year:

Attendance: 75,406  (Third-highest among all bowl games)

Consecutive sellouts: 10  (Third-longest bowl streak in the nation)

Total team payout: $5.65 million (Fourth-highest of all non-BCS bowl games)

FanFest attendance: 31,922 (New Bowl record)

Charitable/Scholarship contributions: $531,000 (Leads all bowl games, including BCS)

Additionally, the Chick-fil-A Bowl recorded an ESPN television rating of 4.8 and was seen in more than five million households. The Chick-fil-A Bowl was the second-most watched bowl game of all 17 bowls televised by ESPN and was seen by more viewers than the Jan. 1 Cotton, Gator and Outback Bowls. Over the last three years, the Chick-fil-A Bowl has averaged a 5.0 rating on ESPN.

“The Chick-fil-A Bowl has evolved into a nationally significant bowl game,” said Leeman Bennett, Chick-fil-A Bowl co-chairman. “Our goal is to provide our teams, fans, viewers and partners with a BCS-type bowl game and a meaningful and memorable experience.”

University of Georgia head coach Mark Richt said of his team’s bowl week experience, “Everything was highly organized, a lot of fun and very well thought out. Even now, the Bowl is asking what they can do better for next year. That’s how this bowl is run. When you’re in a first-class situation, you enjoy it and it makes you feel special.” 

Virginia Tech’s Frank Beamer added “This is a great, great bowl game, and it starts with the people. I know there’s BCS and non-BCS, but we’ve been treated so great here. To me, this is as good as it gets.”

This year’s Chick-fil-A Bowl was the first in which the Bowl owned exclusive rights to select first in the ACC – after the BCS – and was the first game played under the Bowl’s new four-year ESPN broadcast contract that doubled the rights fee paid by the network.

“Talk about a BCS-type bowl game! The Chick-fil-A Bowl really does it right,” said Lee Corso, ESPN college football analyst. “I see great things in this bowl’s future and it deserves every bit of it.”

The Chick-fil-A Bowl is the ninth-oldest bowl game in the country and hosts the longest-running rivalry series between the ACC and SEC. In the last 15 years, the ACC leads the series 8-7 and has outscored their SEC foes 278-276 in what has become the most competitive bowl game in the history of college football. Nine of the last 15 games have been decided by a touchdown or less. The Chick-fil-A Bowl has disbursed nearly $80 million in its 39-year history, ranking it 7th among all bowl games in cumulative payout.

- www.Chick-fil-ABowl.com -

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