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CHICK-FIL-A BOWL: AUBURN v VIRGINIADecember 30, 2011Gary StokanATLANTA, GEORGIA MATT GARVEY: Welcome, everybody. A tradition of ours is the annual State of the Bowl address. With that it's my pleasure to bring up Gary Stokan, our president and CEO. GARY STOKAN: For those of you who are staying at the Marriott, you look very relaxed from all the massages yesterday and all the meals you ate (laughter). I'd like to credit Matt Garvey and our staff, Jessica, David. We have made a real key investment in social media this year. So whether it's our app which you can download or our back stage, which if you go on Chick‑fil‑A Bowl.com, you can see the activities of the players, what they've been up to. You can go on espn.com and vote for the best tradition in college football. I think it's paid off. I think we're one of the leading bowls, I don't know what the latest numbers are, but one of the most leading bowls in that category. Our competition with the ACC and SEC, this is our 20th anniversary of that matchup. The ACC leads with 10 wins. The SEC has nine wins. Both teams are playing either in Virginia's case a bigger lead and in the case of Auburn to tie it up. 56% of our games have been contested and won by a touchdown or less. That matchup with the ACC and SEC has really led to some very competitive games. We're happy and proudly humble to announce this is our 15th straight sellout. We're second only to the Rose Bowl. But we're awfully proud of that. That's a great support by the local ticket buyers here and the corporations in this city as well as the two schools that play in our game every year. Our payout this year is $6.9 million, which brings the cumulative total over 44 years of $110 million that we have given since 1968 to universities around the country. TV, with an unopposed time slot, this will be another great ratings game for us. We own four of the top 10 broadcasts on ESPN in bowl history. Lastly I think the thing about today's game is, again, we keep harping on this, but in our selection process, what we do all week, this is a reward for the players. I think if you were here to listen to Chase Minnifield, the All‑American from Virginia, talk about the live, laugh and learn, how they've been able to experience that, that's what we're in the business for. This is for the players. That's what is most important. We've had a great week. Both teams have been very, very respectful. Just a great week of practice and events, et cetera. Economic engine‑wise, we will have approximately $35 million of economic impact on this city. Especially during this time of the year when the hospitality industry struggles a little bit, it's a welcome revenue producer for them, and $1.5 million in tax revenues to the state of Georgia. Over the last decade, we've delivered $405 million and $17 million in tax revenues for Atlanta and the state of Georgia. When you combine that with our Chick‑fil‑A Kickoff Game, the SEC Championship and the Atlanta Football Classic, college football owns four of the top 10 conventions in this town on an annual basis. That provides over $100 million to this city on an annual basis, which translates to a little over $5 million for state sales tax. Our mission for the bowl game is to be the most charitable bowl game in the country. We do that humbly in a myriad of ways, with a myriad of investments to charities in this city. We've given $13 million in scholarships and donations since 2002, that includes $1.33 million this year that we will give away to charities throughout this city. Some of those charities we donate $180,000 to the National Football Foundation's Play It Smart, where we put an academic coach in every Atlanta inner city public school to get their GPA, SAT scores up so they can graduate high school. We will endow today in partnership with Chick‑fil‑A $50,000 to each school in endowed scholarships and Chick‑fil‑A Bowl will match that to total $100,000 for each school. Since 2006, nine universities have been awarded more than $1.5 million in endowed scholarships. If you're up tomorrow at 11:00, our Chick‑fil‑A Bowl Challenge Golf Tournament can be seen on ESPN‑2 where we give $600,000 in charity and scholarship donations back through that event. So that's on 11 to 12 tomorrow on ESPN‑2. Lastly, our other event that we're looking forward to in 2012 to kick off the college football season next year, we'll be doing something unique to college football. We'll be hosting two games possibly within two days. We'll host NC State versus Tennessee and Auburn versus Clemson in the Chick‑fil‑A Kickoff next year on either Thursday/Saturday to kick off the season or Friday/Saturday. A lot going on with the Chick‑fil‑A Bowl. We appreciate you guys being here in the media. Enjoy the Southern hospitality. With that, I'll acquiesce to Matt to bring the coaches up, which is the most important thing of why you're here. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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