Fiesta Bowl

The Wiz of Odds is conducting a comprehensive study of bowl game expense reports. All of the data collected — expense reports for 56 teams and bowl surveys for 40 teams — are being posted on the site. Here is the latest installment. For an overview of the project, click here.

The Fiesta Bowl, a nonprofit organization based in Scottsdale, Ariz., operates the Fiesta and Insight Bowls. The first Fiesta Bowl was played in 1971.

2011 participants: Connecticut and Oklahoma.

Connecticut expenses: Total expenses were a reported $4.28 million with the biggest chunk ($2.92 million or 68.3 percent) resulting from 14,729 absorbed tickets, which were priced from $105 to $255. No small details were overlooked. The team reported spending $4,847 on band facility rental, bag tags and lanyards or cords that hold credentials. Download Connecticut Expenses

Survey: Despite getting fleeced on tickets, athletic director Jeffrey Hathaway indicated he was "very satisfied" with the location of seats for Connecticut fans — all 2,771 who purchased tickets through the school. He was "neutral" on the number of tickets the bowl required be purchased, and the cost.

"Ticket locations provided to team were outstanding and fans enjoyed the seat locations in the stadium," Hathaway wrote. "Great sightlines from all seats. Bowl might consider increasing number of its more affordable end zone seats as a way to appeal to a broader number of fans and/or students. We recognize the total ticket commitment associated with this BCS bowl game, but selling 17,500 tickets is a challenge for a school from the east whose fans incur more significant travel expenses."

Hathaway, who rated the overall bowl experience as "excellent (exceeded expectations)," wasn't completely happy with the watches given to players as gifts.

"Gift suite [a location where companies give products to players] for student-athletes was outstanding and awards were varied," he wrote. "We received some comments about the bowl watch, which did not contain a bowl logo on its face. Some enjoyed it, but others said that without a bowl logo, it lost some of its commemorative appeal." Download Connecticut Survey

Oklahoma expenses: The NCAA asks teams to report all absorbed ticket costs when tallying up total expenses, but the Sooners did not account for 10,403 tickets that were absorbed by the Big 12. That added $1.88 million, bringing total expenses to $3.73 million. Absorbed tickets accounted for 59.4 percent of Oklahoma's expenses. Download Oklahoma Expenses

Survey: Athletic director Joe Castiglione gave the cost of tickets a "neutral" rating.

"We understand that ticket prices are a major component of the payouts, but this year's prices combined with the overall economy made it extremely difficult for many of our fans to attend," he wrote.

Despite Oklahoma having reported spending $3.73 million on the trip, Castiglione rated the bowl as "excellent (exceeded expectations)."

"The Fiesta Bowl was a great experience across-the-board for our student-athletes." Download Oklahoma Survey

Comments

[inthe915]

I have enjoyed your project that you put together on last season's bowl games. I wonder if you can put up about the Sun Bowl from 2009(Oklahoma vs. Stanford) especially the survey. The reason I am asking is that I am from where the bowl game is at and especially that article that was on this website "The Sun Bowl Has A Problem" what OU really thought about our bowl game.

[The Wiz]

I'll see what I can do, inthe915. El Paso gets a bad rap, in my opinion. It's a great city and I've always enjoyed my visits.