Tucson ‘rolling’ in preparation for Arizona Bowl

November 21, 2015 8:00 pm • Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star

Two weeks from today, the inaugural Nova Homes Loans Arizona Bowl will identify the teams for its Dec. 29 game at Arizona Stadium, and the possibilities go on and on.
From the Mountain West Conference: New Mexico, perhaps. Or Air Force. Maybe Utah State.
From Conference USA: Marshall or Louisiana Tech or maybe Western Kentucky.

And if that doesn’t work out, the Sun Belt Conference might step in and add Georgia Southern or Appalachian State. Who knows, after some 11th hour deals are completed on Dec. 6, Arizona might be juggled into the equation.

In a short time, the Arizona Bowl committee has made impressive progress. Momentum is obvious: the bowl committee has sold all the suites at Arizona Stadium, which is close to $100,000 in sales. They’ve rented the exclusive Sands Club at the Lowell-Stevens football complex. More than 25 Tucson charities are assisting with ticket sales.

Alan Young, chief operating officer of the game, looked at me seriously last week and said “I think we’ll sell 30,000 tickets.’’

Photography by Aaron Latham / Arizona Daily Star

At the final edition of the Copper Bowl, 1999, when Colorado and Boston College played on New Year’s Eve, 35,762 attended.

It is to be noted that the Arizona Bowl Committee includes Tucson attorney Burt Kinerk, a founding father of the Copper Bowl, who fought the good fight for 10 years before former Fiesta Bowl ruler John Junker literally stole the game and moved it to Phoenix.

What Kinerk has discovered is that the Arizona Bowl is not run by dreamers.

Young, who has moved to Tucson from Phoenix, was the Fiesta Bowl chief of staff from 2011-13, picking up the pieces after Junker was incarcerated for a political finance scandal. It was Young, a vice-president of a pharmaceutical firm in Phoenix, who put the pieces back together and hired former UA president Robert Shelton in the transition from Junker to the current Fiesta Bowl leadership.

“The community support in Tucson has been strong from the beginning,’’ said Young. “It’s going to be a three-day celebration of football and of Tucson. We’re rolling.’’

Tucson attorney Ali Farhang, a football lifer who is an assistant coach at Salpointe Catholic and a long-time organizer in Tucson youth football organizations, is the Chairman of the Arizona Bowl Committee. Farhang is the blood and guts part of the bowl game, the same way Kinerk was 25 years ago.

Farhang graduated from the UA in 1993, began his advanced degree in Cambridge, England, and completed law school in Denver.

With Young and Farhang at the top, the Nova Home Loans Arizona Bowl has credibility, a personality and a future.

“We are working diligently to make this a turn-the-tide event for our community,’’ said Farhang. “It’s time for positive change; the support we have received from our community, including business leaders and the UA, has exceeded our hopes.’’

The game will not be shown on a traditional network or cable TV channel, but on campusinsiders.com. It is a digitally-focused strategy that even a tech-challenged fossil like me can operate. On Friday night, for example, I punched up campusinsiders.com and watched my alma mater, Utah State, play a basketball game.

No, it won’t be the Rose Bowl, but as Tucson fights its way back from sports oblivion, it’s an encouraging start.