The Holiday Bowl has a new site.
The bowl game announced Thursday that it would be moving to the San Diego Padres‘ Petco Park. The game had been played at San Diego County Credit Union Stadium since 1978.
“The SDCCU Holiday Bowl has been a San Diego institution for more than four decades, and we are excited to partner with the Padres to continue building on our legacy in America’s Finest City,” Holiday Bowl CEO Mark Neville said in a statement. “Marching bands, cheering fans and game-day spirit were absent from bowl game celebrations last year, but that is all about to change as we prepare to play at Petco Park.”
The game wasn’t played in 2020 as the Holiday Bowl was one of numerous bowls that weren’t held because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The game needed to move stadiums because the former Jack Murphy Stadium no longer exists. The San Diego football stadium — cited as a big reason why the Chargers moved from San Diego to Los Angeles — opened in 1967 and was demolished in March.
The stadium had also been the home of San Diego State football. The school is building a new football stadium and is playing its home games at Dignity Health Sports Park — where the Chargers had a temporary home — until the new stadium is complete.
The Holiday Bowl is now the fourth bowl game scheduled for a baseball stadium in 2021. The Guaranteed Rate Bowl is held at Chase Field, the Pinstripe Bowl is at Yankee Stadium and the inaugural Fenway Bowl is scheduled for Fenway Park in 2021.
The 2021 Holiday Bowl will be played on Dec. 28 and is set to feature teams from the Pac-12 and the ACC. It’ll be the first time ever that an ACC team has played in the bowl game.
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