FLORIDA CITRUS SPORTS BOWL SELECTION

December 8, 2024

Steve Hogan

Sharon Line Clary

Camping World Stadium

Press Conference

SHARON LINE CLARY: Hi everyone, I'm Sharon Line Clary, president of the board of Florida Citrus Sports. I'm excited today to announce that the Pop-Tarts Bowl on December 28th at 3:30 p.m. on ABC will have the Miami Hurricanes take on the Iowa State Cylcones.

And in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl on New Year's Eve, December 31st at 3:00 p.m. on ABC, the South Carolina Gamecocks will take on the Illinois Fighting Illini. We have got some great football coming to the great city of Orlando.

Now we'll take some questions.

Q. Steve, when you look at these selections, how difficult was it to get these matchups going, especially with the new 12 team playoff? How much finagling was there behind the scenes?

STEVE HOGAN: I mean, year in and year out there is always a choice to make. We're super happy about the fact you've got four ranked teams coming to Orlando. That is how we drew it up. We wanted both of our games to feature ranked teams, and we have highly ranked teams that are excited, finished the year the way they did.

For Orlando from a tourism perspective, it is a huge win for all of us.

Q. Having Miami I am sure is a pretty big boost as well. Pretty big presence here, Central Florida, and obviously travel...

STEVE HOGAN: It is, but we've enjoyed having the Hurricanes in the past, and as you know, they've been pretty robust in terms of their overnight stays. Sometimes it's not as many nights as the rest of these teams, but there are overnight stays and it's significant and there is a huge base, and so they usually balance each other out.

To get ten-win plus teams and have the rankings we do, all four of them in the top 20, I couldn't be happier. We are all so fired up to do this. It makes it fun to have a week like this in Orlando.

Q. Illinois hasn't been here in a while. What's it like having a fan base come in that hasn't been around for a while?

STEVE HOGAN: You look at this matchup in particular, my dad went to the University of Illinois. Not that that mattered in the selection in the end—they’re just the most deserving team in the Big Ten. But it's just special to a lot of us.

We have had a lot of great teams come here from the Big Ten, but you got a team that really feels like they've had a huge season. Participating in this game is a pinnacle of that season.

To us, that's special. When you have an opportunity to put that together, look at the way South Carolina finished their season, how hot they have been and some of the wins they checked off, got a quarterback likely to have a Heisman favorite going into next year.

That kind of matchup, right, in both cases, is what makes this special. It makes it fun. So, we're excited to have the Illini for sure. Just excited to have the kind of exuberance we expect to see on the 31st for the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl for sure.

Q. South Carolina and Miami, two schools (no microphone.) In terms of conversations going into the games, how much can that elevate...

STEVE HOGAN: Well, it always matters. We have two of the highest rated games in the country for a reason. I would like to say it's because of two great corporate partners. When you look at Cheez-It and Pop-Tarts on their own they've garnered a huge amount of attention globally certainly over the last 12 months.

When you have teams ranked in the final college football playoff poll that have been in the polls all year long for the most part, the country respects that talent. They know how good they are. They understand they are of the best 20 teams in the land.

So when they can get together in the postseason it just adds up and it makes a difference in the overall ratings. I think the expectations, especially as you get closer to New Year's Eve, much like we have here, teams they have been seeing all season long, you just have to a recipe for success. Just looking forward to keeping that going.

Q. How about capitalizing on the incredible buzz surrounding Pop-Tarts Bowl last year? Talk about capitalizing on that.

STEVE HOGAN: Yeah, look, I'm super proud of our team, or entire staff and our marketing team who meets with Pop-Tarts' team and Cheez-It all the time. Regularly, weekly with their agencies.

This should be an important part of the future of our sport, just the engagement, the interactivity, the fun. It is fun. It should be fun in the post-season.

Without taking away from the competition we have with the four teams, but the conversations that Pop-Tarts and Cheez-It Citrus Bowl have added to the post-season experience is something we're all really mega proud of.

To win -- who would've thought, right, an Orlando game would participate with the partner that would win the sheer amount of awards that we've won. Pop-Tarts last year, just no way replicate it. I think all of us are excited to see what's going to happen here on game day in both of these games.

We have some more reveals to come. It has added to the experience because, to a team, throughout the year, on the road and here when it came close to selection time they were talking about it, too. So, you know it registered and it was fun for them and their fan base, and they have taken notice of that.

Q. Steve, what does it mean to have these games, teams coming here knowing that Camping World Stadium is going to... (No microphone.)

STEVE HOGAN: Well, it substantiates I hope and believe, and it should, the reason why we're investing in Camping World Stadium. 80 years next year, right? This year is No. 79 for the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl. You can't fake that. The tradition and history is rich.

We're honored, the amount the economic impact, the tourist development return, the exposure that both of these games have generated for decades for this community really Camping World Stadium has grown up around what has been the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl for all of those 80 years.

It's a payoff. It's really validation. When you can put this kind of product in town, have this many people enjoying Christmas to New Year's with us and staying in hotel rooms and turning on TV sets and seeing that it's sunny and some of these people are short sleeved and wearing shorts and enjoying a beautiful game, it's just a payoff for this investment this community makes.

You go back to when that vote was first approved in 2007; ultimately put back on track in 2012, and we started construction in '14. Look at the schedule on campus here during that time. It's no longer a question. These games built that momentum. Ultimately got that first approval.

But as you look back, now there are not a lot of questions about whether Camping World Stadium's campus contributes positively to this community.

It's about how are we going to finish it and finish it with class, and I'm excited about what that's going to get now when you look at 2027 and beyond.

But it's all built on the backs of what has been a robust post-season. Really the earliest sports tourism in this community started with a small college football post-season game.

Q. You talk about the impact these games make on this community. Teams come in...

STEVE HOGAN: Yeah, thanks for the question. Sharon and I both, and Advent Health and our partners, we care deeply about that. It's part of the DNA. Huge partners with the College Football Playoff in the form of Extra Yard for Teachers and the Donors Choose program. You look at the investments in what is now known as West Lakes and these communities—$120 million of capital investments and competitiveness for many of these underserved, underinvested neighborhoods. They now feel a lot of hope.

They look at this renovation that is coming, many of them sat in county chambers and were cheering for it for a reason. They see renewed energy for their kids, their grandkids. I think it's the responsibility of anybody that participants in the post-season to leverage that stage in the interest of others, and all of our games in town, Cure Bowl, our games. We're all about it. We're deep I would say in this responsibility.

But we're excited to tell that story. I think the NFL Pro Bowl also in a lot of ways, all these post-season opportunities expect that of us, and Orlando is checking those boxes as well as anybody in the country.

SHARON LINE CLARY: Changing lives.

STEVE HOGAN: Changes lives. Making a huge difference.

Q. (Regarding NIL.) Do you see that continuing?

STEVE HOGAN: Yeah, it's hard not to. I mean, the whole country is probably, as they should be, waiting with interest to see how this will get settled in the House relative to where -- the athlete discussion and whether they're employees or not. All these things are moving towards a future that is a lot more synergistic in the future. There will always be change and upheaval, but in the end in this relationship with the economics of name, image and likeness, it's healthy. You should be able to leverage that, and the players have.

Now that you're pulling that in-house in these institutions it's going to be a lot easier in terms of how you reconcile the various brands and images. The school's image matters also, in juxtaposition with the student-athlete’s image.

All these things make it a lot easier. We as a post-season entity need to and want to participate in that ecosystem. We're just another opportunity, an input into the system, and certainly want to drive revenue and that revenue will be shared in the future. The easier and more synergistic we can make that for the student-athlete and institutions and brands and partners like us in the post-season the better.

All that is very near now. Just get better at it every year. We're excited to do that. Our brands are fun. We want to have fun. The kids seem to have fun with it. Why wouldn't we just go deeper into that?

The relationship with schools now and the in-house as we see more of them taking in-house just going to make that easier.

Go out and buy some Cheez-It, get a pallet of Pop-Tarts, and have a great post-season of college football here in Orlando, everybody.

SHARON LINE CLARY: Thank you.