CHEEZ-IT CITRUS BOWL: IOWA VS TENNESSEE

December 30, 2023

Steve Hogan

Camping World Stadium

Florida Citrus Sports

Press Conference

Q. Can you give background on the event?

STEVE HOGAN: Yeah, it is amazing. Of course, we are so blessed here in Orlando. Since 1947, the first Bowl game, it has always been about kids and that year it was for the Children's Hospital. It is about investing in a community that sits around Camping World Stadium. Many of the kids today at Fun Spot are from that community.

It is personal. Camping World Stadium, the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl, Tennessee, Iowa and the kids, it is like you are with their family. You are in their living room. To get out here for two hours today in a positive environment, see these big guys before they play on the field and some of them tapping them on their back, asking them about their life, that is what it is all about. It is a learning experience for everybody.

I think you see the smiles and the fun, that is what Orlando is about. I think these players enjoy spreading some of that feeling and joy into the families and knowing that connection to the game and the stadium is really cool.

Q. You mentioned in your living room. For those who are not familiar with Orlando and how that project came to be, tell us about some is of the living room surveys and what's come since?

STEVE HOGAN: Yeah, we are not like a lot neighbors where big major sports venues are set, there has not been a ton of investment for many years and those homes really could use and those families and generations and households there could use an infusion of investment in their families and their kids and the future.

So how do you do that? If you want a stadium to connect at a vascular level in a neighborhood, how do you do it? You have to go ask.

So we spent that first year, 1,400 in-home surveys with mom, grandma, and what would you do if you to wave your magic wand. There were four things you wanted to do: Housing – an affordable place to live; health and wellness assets; want kids to go outside and be active and healthy. I want to be able to see a proper doctor. I want a better financial picture for my family. I want to be able to find access to a better job and the best education money can buy. Those are the four things that that neighborhood said, and those leaders said, many of which are here today.

Ye said, okay, we are with you. We are going to join you, the next 20, 30 years, we are going to do nothing, but try to make those four verticals light up so these kids, without regard to money, won't have to take four bus exchanges to go see a doctor; could go to school all the way from an early education facility, all the way through graduation and high school and off into their collegiate career without leaving the neighborhood. That is what it has been about. How do we create conditions where kids can compete shoulder-to-shoulder without regard to money.

Q. What kind of feedback, I know you talk to the teams when they come in and give them the background on what we do in the neighborhood and what their participation means, what kind of feedback do you get from teams when you are talking about that?

STEVE HOGAN: I have been blessed to be here almost 30 years in this business. I have met with a lot of teams that come into town.

This, by far, has been the most impactful discussion point that I have seen with the student athletes. Many of which come up to you afterwards, saying I grew up in a neighborhood like that; my family lives in a neighborhood like that. I want to be a part of this, when I graduate or when I am done with my NFL career. This is the kind of thing I want to find a way to be a part of.

That is really cool. It tells you. We do it, because this is in our DNA here in Orlando. We want to have a relationship with our neighborhood and these kids, but these student athletes and these players and these teams and these coaches feel very much the same way. That has been a real blessing in the college postseason. You can do a lot of things and all of them are very worthy, but the fact that it is connecting in this way with the players makes it really special.