Senior Bowl Leaving Mobile?

Florida Mobile Mobile Arts and Sports Association calls reports "rumor mongering".
FULL TEXT OF NEWS RELEASE

by MASA

Published: Thu, March 19, 2009 - 7:05 pm CST Last Updated: Thu, March 19, 2009 - 7:58 pm CST

"The Mobile Arts and Sports Association, Inc. (MASA) which is a private, not for profit business, owns the Senior Bowl. Like many, we have been astonished and disappointed by the firestorm of falsehoods and rumor mongering that has been spread in Mobile as a result of an erroneous story in The Tampa Tribune earlier this week. These are the FACTS:

• Neither MASA, the Senior Bowl organization, nor anyone on its behalf has been in contact with anyone related to Tampa about anything.

• We have been looking forward to receiving a new contract proposal from the Ladd-Peebles Stadium Board since the subject was officially opened in early December, 2008 by a contact from legal counsel for the Board. We subsequently confirmed our hopes to receive such a proposal with a member of the City Council. We have never indicated to anyone with the Stadium Board, the City or the City Council that we preferred to delay this process. We continue to look forward to receiving a new contract proposal and expect to devote our full attention to addressing that proposal with the Stadium Board.

• Like many other organizations, we have solicited additional funding from the City of Mobile in the past two years, including a formal process through CitiSmart, culminating with a presentation to the City Council. We undertook this process based upon the specific suggestion of officials of the City of Mobile as to how we should approach the City for additional funding.

We did not start these rumors and do not intend to stoop into any finger-pointing contests or smear campaigns."

Victor H. Lott, Jr.
Chairman of the Board of Trustees
Mobile Arts and Sports Association, Inc.

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Surf Says:

Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 8:23 am

What about the story I saw on another local station that the Senior Bowl was upset that the city gave the Gulf Coast Classic additional monies, but did not allocate additional monies for them?????? That would be the REAL kicker here. We give one game lots o money and it causes the MAIN game in this city to leave.

JohnQPublic Says:

Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 6:37 am

Just wondering, why do you stay here? I moved away several times but always came back because I missed it. I know of the many other cities I have lived in none compared to home for me.

MeAmerican Says:

Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 6:23 am

What doesn’t suck about mobile? There are many more reasons why than why not. Far to many to list here.

JohnQPublic Says:

Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 6:18 am

MeAmerican, I agree Ladd sucks, but why would you say Mobile sucks? Where do you live at?

MeAmerican Says:

Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 6:12 am

GOOD! They should leave. Mobile sucks and so does Ladd stadium.

JohnQPublic Says:

Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 6:10 am

They could use all the revenue received from the millions that made the pilgrimage here to see the great moon-pie. All that money should be enough to build a grand stadium.

rosepetal Says:

Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 2:42 am

i hope they stay, lets face it the senior bowl is a big attraction. if someone can afford those sky boxes, well then go for it. a large profit is the hope of every business no big deal there. a new stadium would be a great investment for the city of mobile. it would create jobs also.

Alabama Patriot Says:

Thu, Mar 19, 2009 at 8:33 pm

In today’s economic climate, money talks. As was mentioned in several comments related to this Senior Bowl issue in previous days, the people that own the Senior Bowl organization want to make money for themselves as well as for the local economy. It will be up to Mobile whether the city can pay them enough money to get them to stay here or will the city actually have to buy the Senior Bowl franchise and own the whole thing in order to make sure that it does not leave Mobile. The Ladd-Peebles stadium needs more than a band-aid and a few skyboxes (for rich visitors - I guess) to get people to attend the game, it needs to be completely re-built from the ground up. The Mobile city leaders know this, but do not want to spend that kind of money on this stadium. I hope that Mobile has the resources to convince (bribe?) this organization to remain here. It is really a business decision on the MASA’s part, because making a large profit is the name of the game in today’s financial market.