The Sugar Bowl will host two CFP semifinals and four SEC-Big 12 matchups over the next six yearsGETTY IMAGES
LSU-Clemson tonight is the first college football national championship game hosted by New Orleans since '12, and it "might be as long a span, if not more, before it happens again," according to Ted Lewis of the Baton Rouge ADVOCATE. Allstate Sugar Bowl CEO Jeff Hundley, whose organization led the effort to land the title game, said, "They haven't put any more out for bid yet. So we'll have to wait and see." Lewis noted the CFP for the '24 and '25 seasons has "not identified cities it will invite to submit proposals to host the games, a policy it initiated for the next four years of title games." After rotating the BCS championships between the Sugar Bowl, Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl and Fiesta Bowl, the CFP, which "deals with cities rather than the bowls, will have been played at 10 different venues in its first 10 years." There have been "indications that two newcomers -- Las Vegas and Minneapolis -- will get the remaining two." While eight years "might seem like an extraordinary length of time for a city so used to hosting big events, decade-long lapses are the new normal as new stadiums come on line, often with the promise of those big events." Meanwhile, the Sugar Bowl will "continue to be the site of two CFP semifinals and four SEC-Big 12 matchups over the remaining six years of that contract" (Baton Rouge ADVOCATE, 1/12).
BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS: YAHOO SPORTS' Pete Thamel noted tickets for tonight's CFP title game are "shaping up to be among the most expensive in the event's six-year history." With LSU's campus just 80 miles away from the Mercedes-Benz Superdome and "both a massive fan and alumni base in New Orleans, the ticket demand is exponentially higher" than Clemson-Alabama at Levi's Stadium last year. The "get-in price" on Friday was "hovering around $1,000 and the StubHub average price" was $1,850. Ticket brokers are "thrilled that the game has already exceeded last year's ticket dud," and StubHub's total ticket sales are already 43% higher than last year's total. The geography of the game has "led many to predict a home-field advantage for LSU." On StubHub, 33% of the sales "have come from fans in Louisiana" and another 15% from the "LSU stronghold of Texas" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 1/10). Data provided by VividSeats shows the crowd in New Orleans is "projected to be made up of mostly purple and gold." Their "fan forecast" points to LSU making up about 62% of the attendees, with that number "likely to skew even more to the Louisiana side as the game ticks closer and with prices beginning to fall." Data from SeatGeek up to Dec. 30 had tickets sold by state broke down as Louisiana with 24% and South Carolina with 8% (Baton Rouge ADVOCATE, 1/12).
