For the second year in a row, the Reese’s Senior Bowl is showing no signs of returning to Baldwin County for a one-day practice that once drew large crowds to Fairhope.
But Fairhope officials remain hopeful that the practice will someday return to the city’s Municipal Stadium.
“The interest is definitely there on our end,” Fairhope Mayor Karin Wilson said. “The decision was up to the Senior Bowl board.”
Said Fairhope City Councilman Jack Burrell: “We’d love to host them.”
Two years ago, when Senior Bowl officials ended the Fairhope event, the sticking point revolved around a $35,000 subsidy that the city once gave to host a practice by the game’s South squad.
Fairhope city leaders, in late 2016, said “No” to the public appropriation and the Senior Bowl opted to hold all practices in Mobile at Ladd-Peebles Stadium during 2017.
This time, however, the issue doesn’t seem to focus on the public subsidy. Rob Lehockey, spokesman with the Senior Bowl, said the NFL Network made the call.
“NFL Network wants to televise all the practices live and is not able to move their trucks/equipment from one location to the next in that time frame,” he said.
Subsidy concerns
The lack of a Senior Bowl presence in Fairhope is occurring in the aftermath of the 2016 back-and-forth between the city and the Mobile-based all-star game.
In 2016, Fairhope leaders questioned whether the city reaped much a return from the subsidy. City leaders say those concerns still exist.
“They wanted $35,000 to host a practice, and I don’t know if we are getting that kind of revenue in return,” said Burrell. “I know they are very welcome to come back and practice. The question is whether or not they want to be paid.”
Councilmen Jimmy Conyers and Robert Brown echoed Burrell’s views.
“I love the Senior Bowl and I thought it was really neat when they practiced here,” said Conyers. “I wished we still had them, but for $30,000 or $35,000, we could round up some buses and send our folks over there.”
Brown said he hadn’t thought much about the practice until Tuesday, when local sports radio hosts were talking about Senior Bowl week. The game itself will take place at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.
“Personally, I don’t think it’s worth it,” Brown said, referring to the $35,000 subsidy, though he said he may not be opposed to the expenditure, either.
‘Neat experience’
Scouts and coaches pack the sidelines during the first day of Senior Bowl Practice for the South squad Monday Jan. 25, 2010 at Fairhope Municipal Stadium in Fairhope, Ala. Practices were held in Fairhope until the 2017 game. (file photo)
Conyers and Burrell said the Fairhope location offers plenty of advantages for the Senior Bowl, such as a top-notch playing field with a natural turf surface.
Burrell, whose father was the game’s Most Valuable Player in 1964, said, “It’s great for players and it’s less of an injury risk to practice on a grass field as opposed to artificial turf. All the players and the coaches in the past loved it.”
Conyers said the event was a draw for high schools from all over the Eastern Shore, as young players got a chance to interact and mingle with NFL coaches and college stars.
University of Alabama head football coach Nick Saban would routinely attend the Fairhope practice session.
In 2016, which was the last time that practice was held in Fairhope, the NFL Network did broadcast from Municipal Park Stadium.
“It’s a neat experience, especially for the high school players and I hate that it’s not in Fairhope,” Conyers said. “We’d roll out the red carpet and make it really nice for them.”
In 2016, Lehockey said, the Senior Bowl experience in Fairhope went beyond one two-hour practice and a subsequent autograph session. He said the Senior Bowl offered football camps for hundreds of boys and girls ages 6-12, and financially supported a kickoff party with Fairhope High School and Bayside Academy.
Mobile and Mobile County continue to appropriate taxpayer funds for the annual game, but the amount hasn’t risen in recent years. The city of Mobile budgeted $152,300 for the Senior Bowl for fiscal year 2019, which is the same amount is budgeted three years ago. The city’s fiscal year runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30.
Mobile County chips in $165,000 each year; that amount also remains unchanged from three years ago.
The Senior Bowl is among the biggest events in coastal Alabama, and ranks No. 2 in terms of economic impact for the city behind Mardi Gras. The annual college all-star bowl game has been held in Mobile since 1951.
An economic analysis of the 2015 Senior Bowl showed the event delivered nearly $28 million in economic impact to the city of Mobile, and $494,365 to Baldwin County.
And one of the study’s authors contends the game brings in at least $6.3 million in anticipated future travel revenue to Mobile each year because of media coverage. The study was unclear about Fairhope’s share.
Growing assets
The Senior Bowl, despite concerns raised last year about the game’s attendance and the condition of Ladd-Peebles Stadium, remains flush with money, according to the latest available 990 tax forms from the game’s parent organization, the Mobile Arts and Sports Association Inc.
The 2016 figures, which are the most recent, show the organization with $3.5 million in net assets after generating a $107,487 surplus during that year. That’s a bump from $3.2 million in net assets reported in the 2014 tax forms.
Ticket sales, indeed, were off in 2016 compared to 2014. In 2014, the game generated $490,479 in ticket sales versus $403,562 two years later.
Phil Savage, who was the executive director of the Senior Bowl before stepping down in May 2018, acknowledged the softening ticket sales last year.
“If you look at college football, in general, attendance numbers have declined in the past six years,” he said during an interview with WNSP-FM 105.5. “The reality of live events and television, the comforts of being at home … everyone faces the challenge of getting people to come to their event, so I wouldn’t say the Senior Bowl was immune to that.”
One of the game’s biggest revenue bumps has come from sponsorship money, which jumped from $1.9 million in 2014 to $2.17 million in 2016. TV income remained the same, at $500,000.
Among the organization’s expenses, $293,071 was spent in 2016 on hospitality rooms and gifts, which was down from the $328,227 spent in 2014. But expenses related to player hotels and meals and equipment increased, as did expenses for sponsors.