Silicon Valley Football Classic - Financial Impact

Financial Impact

Surprisingly, the 2004 game was a financial success. This was largely due to the bowl requiring each school to purchase 8,000 tickets at $45 each for a total payout to the bowl of $720,000. Furthermore, both schools accepted no upfront money to play in the game. Troy State had not yet appeared in a bowl game since moving to Division 1 in 2002 and Northern Illinois had not played in a bowl in 21 years. The advantage of featuring lower-profile programs in the 2004 Classic was that both schools were willing to make huge sacrifices just to appear in a nationally televised bowl game. Also, the city of San Jose and Hewlett-Packard each paid $100,000 to be named as primary bowl sponsors, and the WAC made a $300,000 commitment as well. The Classic also spent very little money on advertising. Despite the low attendance numbers, it was estimated the bowl netted a $200,000 profit in 2004. The bowl organizers planned to use these proceeds toward the 2005 game, which they hoped would bring more familiar west coast schools. City officials estimated the game brought roughly 6.4 million dollars to the San Jose economy annually through increased hotel bookings and dining in what bowl and city officials stated is normally the slowest tourism week of the year.