Bowling For Dollars/Twelve Images of Christmas #9

Every December, invitations go out selected institutions of higher learning to round up their football players, coaches, gear and especially a few thousand of their loyal alumni and fans and bring ‘em somewhere for a holiday football game. There’s bowl games from DC to Detroit, from Miami to Boise, and of course there are games in California, including “the Granddaddy of ‘em all”, the Rose Bowl.

Other than providing a vacation for those fortunate enough to have some spare cash and vacation days, and filling up a lot of TV time for those who couldn’t go in person, what is the allure? It is a trait older than the holidays.

It is greed.

The bowls, you see pay incredible sums of money to the participants. Here, for your wonder and amazement, is a partial list. By the way, most of the participants pool their payday with other members of their conference, so everybody wins. Let us be reminded that this is, of course, amateur athletics.

The FedEx National Championship Game, January 8 in Miami
Estimated Payout Per Team: $17.5 Million

The Rose Bowl , New Year’s Day in Pasadena
Estimated Payout Per Team: $17.5 Million

The FedEx Orange Bowl , New Year’s Day in Miami
Estimated Payout Per Team : $17.5 Million

(yeah that’s 4 x $17.5 = $70 Million one week in Miami)

The Allstate Sugar Bowl , January 2 in New Orleans
Estimated Payout Per Team: $17.5 Million

The Tostitos Fiesta Bowl , January 5 in Tempe, AZ
Estimated Payout Per Team: $17.5 Million

also...
The Eagle Bank Bowl, December 20 in DC, $1 Million Each
The Champs Sports Bowl, December 27 in Orlando, $2.25 Million Each
The Alamo Bowl, December 29 in San Antonio, $2.2 Million Each
The Capital One Bowl, January 1 in Orlando, $4.25 Million Each
The Outback Bowl, January 1 in Tampa, $3.1 Million Each
The Cotton Bowl, January 2 in Dallas, $3 Million Each

There are more games, more dollars; you get the idea. I’m going to search for the big money numbers: how much is wagered on these games.

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Twelve Days of Christmas Images #10

This is Thimble City. In our pre video game world, we had this manual version of Sim City, a piece of pressed board painted like a town center, elevated by plastic legs at each corner. Thimble City had several buildings, with the people and cars moved around the city by using plastic wands with a magnet at the tip. The people and the cars had magnets in their bottoms, and the wands were moved around underneath the city surface, and we played two at a time. This is the only toy that I can remember my sister and I actually playing together. Sort of like an ancient version of the internet link for XBox, except we were actually there, together, in the same place. There were also occasional monster attacks on Thimble City, those occurring when our cat would join the playtime and stalk the city. If you want to relive this bit of your childhood, there are some sets out there for $300 and up. If I recall correctly, this was another Remco product. Remco, Marx and Ideal shaped millions of little lives in the world before Microsoft.

Pre-binary Christmas.