New Sponsor, New Feel for Arizona Bowl

The 2020 Arizona Bowl hosted San Jose State vs. Ball State. The 2021 Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl will be held Dec. 31.

Barstool Sports Brings Vast Media Following

By Steve Rivera

As Kym Adair stood on the stage of Stevie Eller Dance Theatre at the University of Arizona, she had one word to describe how she felt about Barstool Sports as the new title sponsor and exclusive broadcast partner of the Arizona Bowl:

Elation.

“We are so excited to have the third -largest sports media company behind our game that started six years ago,” said Adair, Arizona Bowl’s executive director. “It’s an incredible distance for us to go in that six-year period. We couldn’t have a better partner.”

The Arizona Bowl has found its future. The game is set for Dec. 31 at Arizona Stadium and will feature top teams from the Mountain West Conference and Mid-American Conference. Arizona Bowl officials heralded the new deal with Barstool Sports, given the many possibilities through sponsorship and media collaborations.

The sponsorship deal is for three years. Adair called it “a game-changing partnership” for the Southern Arizona bowl game, which is on its third sponsor after having Nova Home Loans for the first five years and Offerpad last year.

“Barstool Sports will literally change the landscape of the bowl for years to come, connecting our history of leading-edge innovation that showcases the grand traditions of football to Barstool’s unmatched creative content power and streaming services,” Adair said.

“Fun” was another word to describe the partnership when bowl officials announced the pairing in late July.

“I think everything (creatively) is going to be on the table,” Adair said. “We’re

going to be a traditional ballgame with a nontraditional partner. We’re looking to add fun, innovative content to our game – fresh and funny, something everyone is going to want to watch.”

One of the many appeals for Arizona Bowl officials is Barstool’s penchant for charity, having raised more than $40 million from 200,000 donors, including heavy hitters such as NFL quarterbacks Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers and mogul Elon Musk.

Through the years, the Arizona Bowl has given more than $4.5 million to local nonprofits and has had an economic impact of more than $125 million, according to Ali Farhang, the bowl’s founder and chairman.

“I’ve said this for the past six years: The Arizona Bowl doesn’t settle for the status quo and not just success now,” Farhang said. “You’re either getting better or you’re getting worse. We dream big every day.”

Because of the new sponsor, Farhang said, the game will go into “hyperdrive.”

On so many levels. Officials plan to have a golf tournament, possibly a concert and a party. No one is looking forward to it more than Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, a man who thinks outside of the box.

“We’re super excited,” Portnoy said. “It’s been a dream of mine for Barstool. We’ve been working on something like this for years. We’ve been looking for the right partner in a great city. We love Tucson, and we love the charity aspect.”

Portnoy said the company is different when it comes to title sponsors and broadcast sponsors. “We aren’t trying to make money on this bowl. We just want to be memorable, unique and (a good) partner in every way. We’re trying to make this an experience. We really couldn’t have found a better partner.”

Another great appeal is Barstool’s wide-reaching media opportunities. According to Barstool, it averages more than 1.5 billion monthly social media views and an average of 6.9 million podcast listeners.

“This will bring many millions of fresh eyes to Tucson, translating to a major advertisement for our city and state,” Adair said.

Barstool Sports’ primary audience is younger than 30 and mostly male, given its content. Bowl officials said Barstool is “the content destination for the Millennial and Gen-Z audiences.”

Adair added, “It’s attractive to all demographics. But what this will do is, it’ll allow us to expand our reach and demographics.” It will also lend visibility to the Bowl’s partnering conferences – Mountain West and Mid-American Conference.

“The conferences are thrilled that we have a great partner and have a long-term contract,” Adair said. “They typically don’t comment on bowl sponsorships and TV programing, but they know the types of eyeballs that will be watching their two conferences. They will build a fan base that they haven’t seen before.”

BARSTOOL SPORTS ARIZONA BOWL

Friday, Dec. 31, 12 p.m. Arizona Stadium thearizonabowl.com