Posted 9:50 AM by Gene

With our economy discarding decent jobs right and left despite the general prosperity mu-ni-CI-pal officials grasp at straws, and one especially alluring pile of straw is the RENDELLIAN notion that SPORTS IS AN ENGINE OF ECONOMIC GROWTH, and one powerful cylinder in the engine is the PROFESSIONAL COLLEGE BOWL GAME. So mu-ni-CI-pal types put out elaborate studies proving that changing the name of a bowl game to the Chick-fil-A Bowl will add $500 quintazillion dollars to Atlanta's economy, or that the AT&T Bowl Parade (or whatever they call it) creates $850 hexazillion dollars ROLLLLLLING into LALALand's coffers. Two questions: 1. If bowl games are the fountain of economic youth why do so many of them so frequently have sponsor changes? and 2. How much of the economic impact comes from drinking?

The NPCPCAA's lobbyists wrote this piece of twaddle, plain and simple, and Rev's boys swallowed it gaggingly whole.

P. S.

With the commitment from Chick-fil-A, the bowl will be able to increase its per-team payout from the current $2.4 million to more than $3 million per year beginning in 2006. That would give the Chick-fil-A Bowl the second-highest payout among non-BCS bowls. The Capital One Bowl in Orlando is expected to pay each of its teams $5.19 million this season.

Does any shareholder EVER ask how much this corporate staring in the mirror COSTS?