New Dallas-Based Nonprofit Takes Over Sponsorship For New Year's Day Bowl Game

The newly formed nonprofit Heart of Dallas announced Thursday that it is "replacing TicketCity as the title sponsor of the Jan. 1 college football bowl game at the Cotton Bowl Stadium," according to Matt Joyce of the DALLAS BUSINESS JOURNAL. The bowl will "continue the Jan. 1 game’s conference contracts for the next two years -- the Big 10 and a Big 12 team in 2013, and the Big 10 and Conference USA in 2014." Dallas-based PlainsCapital Bank is the game's "main presenter." The group plans to "organize sports and entertainment events in Dallas and invest proceeds in charitable and civic works." C-USA Commissioner Britton Banowsky, the founder of the nonprofit, said that the city of Dallas and the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau "are civic partners in the new nonprofit group." Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings "also announced another new event at the Cotton Bowl" -- the Heart of Dallas Classic. Army and Louisiana Tech "have already agreed to play" in the '13 game, which will take place next September "during next year's State Fair of Texas" (BIZJOURNALS.com, 10/4). Banowsky said that Heart of Dallas will be a "year-round entity with corporate support that happens to have a bowl game." He added that a "concert series is also in the works and there will be other events to follow" (DALLASNEWS.com, 10/4).