Heart Of Dallas Bowl Pumps Almost $20M Into Economy
DALLAS (CBS 11 NEWS) - The new "Heart of Dallas" bowl, which debuted New Year's Day at the old Cotton Bowl Stadium in Dallas Fair Park, is unique.
It is run as a non-profit to benefit local charities. Folks staging the Heart of Dallas Bowl are delighted.
"We want to shine a light on Dallas. Dallas is about its people and they love their sports. What greater way to shine a light on Dallas than through their sporting events," said board member Kern Egan.
The group secured rights to the New Year's day game just four months ago, but still put nearly 50-thousand fans into the Cotton Bowl Stadium.
"We want to make sure the spirit of college football stays alive here on January 1st year in and year out, so we expect bigger and better things," Egan said.
The group has a continuing partnership with the Cotton Bowl. It will host the Dallas Cup soccer event later this year. During the first weekend of the State Fair of Texas, the Heart of Dallas Classic between Louisiana Tech and Army will be held.
"But this is a non-profit, all-volunteer organization. What this allows us to do is to give the most money back as possible to Dallas charities, to keep our expenses low," according to Egan.
Dallas' hotels and other businesses benefit from the new bowl game, created after the Cotton Bowl Classic moved to Arlington.
In 2011, what was then the Ticket City Bowl pumped 11-million dollars into Dallas economy; in 2012 that jumped to 17.5-million.
"We should be expecting somewhere between $17-19 million," says Monica Paul, Vice President of Sports Marketing for the Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau, of this year's game. She adds, " I think both bowls are extremely important to the city. Dallas businesses should still feel some of the $30-million impact from Cotton Bowl Classic in Arlington.
The last time the CVB did a formal survey of the economic impact when the Cotton Bowl Classic was still at Dallas Fair Park, the impact was $29.8 million.
Fans who watched Oklahoma State defeat Purdue on national TV also got glamour shots of Dallas, and that's valuable, too, says Downtown Dallas, Inc. President and CEO John Crawford.
"For companies, for example, that are considering relocation wherever they might be--New York or California--- I think the more they see of what's going on and downtown, the better off we are. I think we want to continue promoting Fair Park as a major destination."
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