The Classic Controversy Continues

Mayor Sam Jones Alabama State University Will the Gulf Coast Classic continue in Mobile?

by Tiffany Craig

Published: Tue, May 12, 2009 - 6:33 pm CST Last Updated: Tue, May 12, 2009 - 6:54 pm CST

Will the Gulf Coast Classic stay in Mobile after this year's game? The answer is anyone's guess.

Southern University's Athletic Director Greg LaFleur told the Mobile City Council that his school is in hole after last year's game. The Classic is the match up at Ladd-Peebles Stadium between Southern and Alabama State.

The city proposed to pump 450,000 dollars into the game but the council ended up voting to give 275,000 to the schools. Since a home game for Southern brings in about 250,000, you might think Southern would think twice about playing in Mobile.

But they didn't.

LaFleur claims that he met with the mayor and some council members and was assured that his school would have no risk by playing a home game in Mobile. Mayor Sam Jones says that's not true. "I don't know how you can assure anybody that there is no risk. It's always a risk when you have any event so no we didn't make that assurance."

LaFleur left without any extra money. This year's game is Alabama State's home game so they will decide if it will be played here or in Montgomery. After that, who knows.

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BamaBob Says:

Wed, May 13, 2009 at 5:40 pm

Has this game ever been a money maker? I think last year’s returns were pretty miserable.

Alabama Patriot Says:

Wed, May 13, 2009 at 5:29 pm

Mobile sure was pushing for this game to be played here last year. It may be true that the city leaders didn’t really want the game to be played here permanently, so they did not commit to that, but did make an effort to lure the teams here so that the city could make a lot of money off of the people that bought tickets and the teams themselves. Due to the cost of doing business now-a-days, it is no wonder that the team sponsors asked for more money. After all, they wanted over $400,000 last year and did not get it. Mobile may lose the Senior Bowl permanently, in due course, because the city will not want to pay them the many thousands of dollars they want as incentive to play here. It is quite possible that that organization will want far more than the $500,000 they wanted last year, too. We will wait to see what happens.