Seattle looking to add bowl game to NCAA calendar

Even with 34 bowl games already on the college football calendar, Ralph Morton sees no reason why a 35th couldn't work.

The director of the Seattle Sports Commission said Tuesday that his group is in the early stages of trying to bring a bowl game back to Seattle, hoping to develop a relationship with the Pac-10 as one of its anchor tenants for a game that could begin in 2010.

Seattle had a two-year run hosting a bowl game, but that ended in 2003 when financial backing couldn't be found.

"We're not trying to resurrect the old game," Morton said. "Our big plan is to put together a high-tier bowl game."

Morton's business plan is just in the infant stages, but was being talked about this week with Pac-10 athletic directors meeting in Seattle. The Pac-10 currently has seven bowl tie-ins, and Morton believes the new bowl could be in the mix by 2010.

The pitch Morton has presented is the bowl game being a "win-win" for the conference and the city, and the game would be a fundraiser for Children's Hospital in Seattle.

"We only want to pursue the game if it's a high-tier event and if the Pac-10 is involved," Morton said.

The perfect timeline for Morton would be finding a financially strong sponsor in the next few months, have plans for the bowl ready to present for NCAA certification in the spring of 2009 and have the game start playing at Qwest Field in 2010.

This past year, the NCAA certified two more bowl games - the Congressional Bowl in Washington, D.C., and the St. Petersburg Bowl in Florida - bringing the total to 68 Division I teams that could be playing in the postseason, assuming enough teams have records that would allow them to play in a bowl.

Becoming a top-tier bowl game requires hefty payouts for the competing teams - in the neighborhood of $2 million to $4 million for bowls that are not part of the Bowl Championship Series. Morton believes it's possible to attract top teams to the Pacific Northwest in the middle of what's usually the grayest and wettest time of the year.

"Right now, we've made some progress. Over the next six months we'll just see what happens," he said.

The initial Seattle Bowl was moved from Hawaii to Seattle in 2001, with Georgia Tech beating Stanford 24-14 at Safeco Field. The game moved to Qwest Field a year later where Wake Forest beat Oregon 38-17.