Marlins Park hosts Miami Beach Bowl

Shane McCrink, Staff Writer

Six years after the final game at the Orange Bowl, College Football will return to Little Havana. Miami Marlins officials announced that Marlins Park will host a new postseason bowl game called the Miami Beach Bowl.

Marlins Park opened in 2012 on the grounds of the old Miami Orange Bowl. After hosting five Super Bowls, multiples college bowl games, and acting as the home to the Miami Dolphins from 1966-1986 and Miami Hurricanes football team from 1937-2007, the 80 year old stadium was demolished in May 2008. In the spring of 2009, the then named “Florida Marlins” received notification that their lease with their stadium at the time, Sun Life Stadium,  would be up after the 2011 season. At the beginning of the 2012 major league season the Miami Marlins moved into their new ballpark with a new name, new design and new outlook.

The New Miami Beach Bowl is set to debut around December 22nd or 23rd in 2014. The bowl is still in negotiation for a TV contract.

“It’s dumb how we made a baseball oriented park and now it’s turning into a football park,” junior James Lehr said.

The game will feature a team from the American Athletic Conference (formerly known as the Big East), Sun Belt Conference, Mid-American Conference or Conference USA. Officials said tickets will cost $60 and could generate $34 million to the city of Miami.

“It’s awesome because I get to see two very good football teams play against each other in my own backyard,” sophomore Garret Huber said.

Marlins Park becomes the fourth Major League Ballpark to host a college football postseason bowl game along with AT&T Park in San Francisco (Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl), Yankee Stadium in New York (Pinstripe Bowl) and Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg (Beef O Brady’s Bowl).