More College Bowl Information from the Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal is one of the truly great sources of information. Yes it focuses on the money and lacks a consistent coverage of sports but time and time again the WSJ is ahead of the curve when reporting the news. When it is not getting ahead of the other sources of news it provides information not found elsewhere.

In The Not-Another-Bowl there is an interesting bit of information about Disney Sports and their motivation for aiding in the creation of bowls.

A big driver behind the increase in bowl games is ESPN. For all the prestige of playing in a bowl, many teams that participate in them spend more money than they earn on the games. ESPN, on the other hand, has turned even no-name bowls into commercial hits. The 17 bowl games ESPN televised last year averaged the same rating the network got for the 2006 Major League Baseball playoffs. ESPN has even started several bowls, including the PapaJohns.com Bowl in Birmingham, Ala.

This article also contains interesting information about the sucesses and problems that schools are having in selling game tickets. The more interesting one being Auburn fans and their lack of interests in attending the Cotton Bowl. Is it that the Cotton Bowl has lost its luster or is it the AU fans willing not travel for anything less than a BCS game.

One omission from the article is the local economic of the influx of fans on the local economy especailly the need to fill empty hotel rooms.