Creation of Frisco Bowl added to ESPN Events Lineup

Creation of Frisco Bowl added to ESPN Events Lineup
Formerly Miami Beach Bowl, game moves to Frisco, Texas
One of 14 owned and operated ESPN Event Bowl games 

FRISCO, Texas (Tuesday, May 23) – The newly created Frisco Bowl will be played from its new Frisco, Texas, home beginning in December 2017. The bowl game, formerly the Miami Beach Bowl, is now owned and operated by ESPN Events, a division of ESPN, and is affiliated with the American Athletic Conference.

The bowl game will air on ESPN on Wednesday, Dec. 20, at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT at Toyota Stadium in Frisco

Toyota Stadium is the home of FC Dallas of Major League Soccer and host to the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) Championship Game since 2010. It has a football capacity of 20,500.

“We are pleased to be able to host this game in one of the most vibrant football markets in the country,” said Clint Overby, ESPN vice president of events. “The infrastructure and facilities that exist in Frisco are outstanding and will be an excellent venue for the teams, players, administrators and fans traveling into the marketplace. We look forward to working with civic organizations and businesses in the area to create an annual event that embraces the spirit of the community.”

“We are thrilled to host the Frisco Bowl,” said Dan Hunt, FC Dallas president. “Toyota Stadium provides a premier football experience and we’re looking forward to hosting this marquee matchup for years to come.”

“We are extremely excited to be a part of creating this bowl game,” said Josh Dill, director of sports and events, Visit Frisco. “The Frisco Bowl is a great fit for our city because sports truly is a pillar of our community. Hosting this event is a perfect way to showcase our city’s sports and tourism offerings, while providing entertainment and economic benefits for our residents.”

The Miami Beach bowl was held at Marlins Park in Miami from 2014-16, with an American Athletic Conference team facing an opponent from Conference USA, the Mid-American Conference or the Sun Belt Conference. Memphis won the inaugural event in 2014, followed by Western Kentucky in 2015 and Tulsa in 2016.

“We are excited to be a part of the Frisco Bowl and enhance our relationship with ESPN Events,” said Mike Aresco, commissioner of the American Athletic Conference. “I want to thank Pete Derzis and Clint Overby for their vision and hard work in creating this bowl game. The Frisco Bowl will join ESPN’s outstanding lineup and will permit us to send a deserving team to a first-class facility in a region within our conference footprint that has been tremendously supportive of postseason college football.”

Ticket information for the Frisco Bowl will be announced this summer. For further details, visit thefriscobowl.com, or follow on twitter.com/FriscoBowlESPN and facebook.com/friscobowl.

ESPN Events
ESPN Events, a division of ESPN, owns and operates a large portfolio of 31 collegiate sporting events worldwide. The roster includes three Labor Day weekend college football games; FCS opening-weekend game; 13 college bowl games, 11 college basketball events and two college award shows, which accounts for approximately 300-plus hours of programming, reaches almost 64 million viewers and attracts over 700,000 attendees each year. With satellite offices in Albuquerque, Birmingham, Boca Raton, Boise, Dallas-Fort Worth, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Montgomery and St. Petersburg, ESPN Events builds relationships with conferences, schools and local communities, as well as providing unique experiences for teams and fans.

ESPN Events also manages the Big 12 Corporate Partner Program.

Collegiate Football
AdvoCare Texas Kickoff (Houston); Air Force Reserve Celebration Bowl (Atlanta); Bahamas Bowl (Nassau); Birmingham Bowl (Alabama); Boca Raton Bowl (Florida); Camping World Kickoff (Orlando, Fla.); Famous Idaho Potato Bowl (Boise); Frisco Bowl (Frisco, Texas); Gildan New Mexico Bowl (Albuquerque); Guardian Credit Union FCS Kickoff (Montgomery, Ala.); Hawai’i Bowl (Honolulu); Las Vegas Bowl (Nevada); Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl (Dallas-Fort Worth); MEAC/SWAC Challenge (Baton Rouge, La.); Raycom Media Camellia Bowl (Montgomery, Ala.); St. Petersburg Bowl (Florida); Texas Bowl (Houston); The Home Depot College Football Awards (Atlanta) and Zaxby’s Heart of Dallas Bowl (Dallas-Fort Worth)

Collegiate Basketball
AdvoCare Invitational (Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando, Fla.); Armed Forces Classic (Ramstein Air Base, Germany); College Basketball Awards Presented by Wendy’s (Los Angeles); Gildan Charleston Classic (South Carolina); Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic (Honolulu); Jimmy V Men’s  Classic presented by Corona (New York City); Jimmy V Women’s Classic presented by Corona (TBD); NIT Season Tip-Off (Brooklyn, N.Y.); PK80 (Portland, Ore.); Puerto Rico Tip-Off (San Juan); State Farm Champions Classic (Chicago) and Wooden Legacy (Fullerton, Calif.)

For more information, visit the official website, Facebook, Twitter or YouTube pages.

About Visit Frisco
Founded in 2003, Visit Frisco, the Frisco, Texas, Convention & Visitors Bureau, has grown in tandem with the extensive growth of leisure travel, sports, and meeting facilities within the city. It’s their mission to generate a positive awareness of Frisco as a premiere destination for meetings, sporting events, conventions, trade shows, leisure travel, and to positively impact the economic base of the City of Frisco. Learn more at visitfrisco.com or call 877-GO-FRISCO.

About Toyota Stadium
Opened 2005, Toyota Stadium and Toyota Soccer Center is a 145-acre multipurpose sports and entertainment complex located in Frisco, Texas. It is the home stadium for FC Dallas and hosts the FCS Championship Game, the Frisco Bowl as well a variety of concerts, tournaments and other events. It is also the future home of the National Soccer Hall of Fame.

Media Contacts:

Ray Mallouk at 214-403-8334, or [email protected]

Rachel Siegal at 860-766-2798, or [email protected]