ESPN owns and operates more than a dozen bowl games through its ESPN Events arm, and they’ve now added the Miami Beach Bowl to their collection.

That’s according to the American Athletic Conference, which announced the news on Friday:

The American Athletic Conference, which created the Miami Beach Bowl and has owned and operated the event since 2014, announced Friday that the game has been purchased by ESPN.  The AAC will continue its affiliation with the bowl game; it’s expected Conference USA, the MAC and Sun Belt will do the same.

It’s going to need a new name, though, as ESPN announced the game will be moving to Frisco, Texas:

The Miami Beach Bowl is leaving Miami after three seasons and will be played in Frisco, Texas, starting this year, industry sources told ESPN on Friday.

The game would be played at Toyota Stadium, a Major League Soccer stadium, which has a capacity of 20,500. The facility in the Dallas suburb annually hosts the FCS championship game each January

The tie-ins will indeed remain similar, with an AAC team taking on a Sun Belt team the next two seasons, and a MAC team the season after that.

Why would the AAC make this move? Well, here’s the big reason:

Owning the game itself was likely not a profitable venture for the AAC, and now they can pass those responsibilities off to ESPN, while retaining a postseason spot for a conference member.

ESPN loves adding inventory for bowl season, and they must think there’s something workable with this game. It’s also interesting that it’s leaving an MLB stadium and going to an MLS stadium. The novelty of seeing college football at a baseball stadium has worn off a bit, especially a stadium with no history of its own. It’s one thing if it’s at Wrigley, or Fenway, or even the new Yankee Stadium.

But no one cares about seeing a game at Marlins Park, and the logistical issues created make for a less-than-stellar crowd experience. At least a soccer stadium is shaped properly.

Still, we’ll always have all the wonderful memories the Miami Beach Bowl offered us.

Though that list really just boils down to the BYU-Memphis brawl:

RIP, random Miami bowl game.

About Jay Rigdon

Jay is a columnist at Awful Announcing. He is not a strong swimmer. He is probably talking to a dog in a silly voice at this very moment.

6 thoughts on “The Miami Beach Bowl is leaving Miami, now owned by ESPN

  1. SOOO, Espn is laying off hundreds of humans. But can buy a totally insignificant bowl game played on a monday afternoon during holiday season. Like Ron Burgunday once said. ” This network is run by children’

    1. It still generates revenue for the network though sponsorship. Even if it were played in an empty stadium it would make money.

  2. 20,500. I guess it’s better to have a half – full stadium than a mostly empty one.

  3. There’s a good chance this game is moving dates and times with the folding of the Poinsettia Bowl. One positive for them though is they’ll be getting a national radio provider, likely RedVoice LLC, since ESPN requires all ESPN Event bowls to be available on national radio.

  4. Which is hilarious, because it was never in Miami Beach, and it took place in a stadium of which the owner said it would never be used for football (which he said while also lying about being broke and swindling the taxpayers of Miami, Miami-Dade County and the entire State of Florida out of millions to build it). The Miami Beach Bowl never should have existed in the first place.

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