The Tribune

By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net

The ninth edition of the HomeTown Lenders Bahamas Bowl will be hosted in Charlotte at the Jerry Richardson Stadium to commence the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division one Football Bowl Subdivision season.

The venue change and eventual renaming of the bowl game came one week after ESPN Events officially announced that the event would not take place at the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium due to looming renovations.

Clint Overby, vice president of ESPN Events, released a statement expressing gratitude to Charlotte for accommodating the college football bowl game.

“We appreciate the support and willingness of Charlotte and its administration, specifically Director of Athletics Mike Hill, to work with us on relocating this game to Jerry Richardson Stadium.

“We are fortunate to have great partners who understand the importance of the college football postseason and the positive impact these games have on both student athletes and participating programmes,” said Overby.

The bowl game was expected to take place at 11am on Saturday, December 16, which would have been the first time that the NCAA football event was played on that day since the inaugural launch in 2014.

With The Bahamas Bowl now relocated to UNC Charlotte’s on-campus stadium, the name will be changed in upcoming weeks and the date has now changed to Monday, December 18 at 2:30pm.

The repairs at the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium, where the event was first hosted in 2014, are expected to begin on November 1, according to Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Mario Bowleg. He first made the revelation of the impending repairs earlier this month, which will begin with the western grandstand being shutdown to start the process of a $10 million overhaul.

“We have some serious work that is going to be starting on the stadium. I know we are in agreement with the Chinese government to commence some serious repairs, and that is supposed to start on November 1.

“Depending on when they come, along with the technocrats from the Ministry of Works, they will be able to determine that,” the Minister told reporters. Despite the relocation to the Jerry Richardson Stadium for 2023, the bowl game will return to the sporting paradise in December 2024.

“We look forward to the bowl returning to The Bahamas next year,” Overby said last week.

The bowl game will feature teams in competition from the Mid-American Conference (MAC) and Conference USA (C-USA).

The HomeTown Lenders Bahamas Bowl is one of the seventeen bowl games that are owned and operated by ESPN Events.

In the eighth edition of the game hosted in The Bahamas, the University of Alabama (UAB) Blazers defeated the Miami University (Ohio) Redhawks 24-20 to earn their second straight football bowl game victory.

The team’s first win of the two came against Brigham Young University (BYU) in 2021 at the Independence Bowl.

The HomeTown Lenders are the event’s title sponsors for the second consecutive year.