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Wondering What Could Have Been

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By JOE HENDERSON

jhenderson@tampatrib.com

Published: December 7, 2008

TAMPA - There was just about everything you'd want for an afternoon of big-time college football Saturday at the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game.

The weather was straight from the Chamber of Commerce manual, 72 degrees at kickoff. Ray-Jay was all painted up with the ACC logo in the middle of the field. There were banners and bands, students with their faces painted, two pretty good teams, sky divers.

It was perfect.

Almost.

They were a little shy on people to actually watch Virginia Tech thrash Boston College 30-12 in this awfully good setting.

They announced that 53,927 tickets were sold and distributed - a sly way of skirting actual attendance - but use your eyes. There might have been 20,000 people in the house if you counted the bands, officials, the public address announcer, and assuming someone brought their dog.

There is no way to know how many of those actually paid to get inside. Local organizers were passing out thousands of free tickets the past couple of days - what, you didn't get some?

"It's a little bit the nature of the beast. We think we have tickets that were sold in August at the beginning of the season that are probably sitting in Clemson, S.C. There are probably some that could be in Tallahassee, in Atlanta, and where ever else there may be as well," Tampa Bay Sports Commission executive director Rob Higgins said.

"I'm confident we can look in the mirror and know we did absolutely everything we could to create the best atmosphere we can."

Didn't Get The Matchup
What Tampa wanted, of course, was Florida State.

Or Miami.

Or, dare to dream, Florida State-Miami.

No disrespect to the actual participants intended. But if you want to sell tickets in Tampa, let's put it this way: That fumble that cost the Seminoles a victory at Georgia Tech probably kept 30,000 more seats Saturday from being filled.

It's nobody's fault, really, but it is worth wondering what might have been.

Even without FSU or Miami, the game could have drawn more of a buzz. Clemson, highly ranked at the start of the year, would have traveled well. Georgia Tech would have brought its share. But that's the gamble you take when hosting an event from a conference as spread out as the ACC. Sometimes you get Boston College and Virginia Tech.

Fans around here can't be expected to care much about either school and, given the economy, you can't blame anyone who didn't shell out for last-minute plane tickets and hotel rooms to come here. Neither participating school knew until last weekend that it had clinched a spot in the title game.

"When a team learns late last Saturday night they've got 10,000 tickets to sell and they've got to get cross-country the week after Thanksgiving, it makes it difficult," said Michael Kelly, the ACC's associate commissioner for football operations.

That was a big obstacle.

Looking Ahead

Everybody tried to make the best of it, and certainly Virginia Tech has a nice impression of Tampa today. The game will be back here next year and then it's off to Charlotte for two years. After that, we'll see what happens.

Higgins won't say what the sports commission bid for the rights to host this game, so it's hard to guess how much money it lost. If things don't improve next year, though, it is fair to debate how much sense it makes to pursue the game in future years. That is, unless there are plans to pick Tampa up and move it closer to more ACC schools.

"Our responsibility is to flush out every opportunity we can that will provide economic activity to the community through sports," Higgins said. "We're going to continue to do that."

As well they should. But you can have everything in place and sometimes it still doesn't work out like you want. This was one of those days.

Pity. It really was quite a setting.

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