The NCAA FCS football championship game has packed its bags, footballs and championship trophy and moved west to Pizza Hit Park in Frisco, Texas after an impressive 13-year stay in Chattanooga.

In a stunning decision, at least to Greater Chattanooga Sports and Events Committee president Scott Smith, the NCAA selection committee has decided to give the game a fresh start.

“It’s hard to believe that the NCAA would walk away from 13 years of a solid game experience to start over, regardless of the site,’’ said Smith. “Having been involved in running this event since its beginning, I am sick over this decision.

“They told me one of the deciding factors was that the NCAA thought the players in the championship game would have a more enjoyable experience in the greater Dallas area than in Chattanooga,’’ said a disappointed Smith.

The 2011 FCS title game (formerly I-AA) will be played at Pizza Hut Park on Friday, Jan. 7, three days prior to the BCS championship game. The contract is for three years.

According to Smith, the NCAA also expressed concern that local ticket sales had leveled off in recent years.
Local ticket sales the past two years were about 10,000 each with total game attendance at 14,328 for 2009 and 17,823 for 2008.

Chattanooga’s high water mark for attendance was 23,010 (standing room only) in 2007 between Appalachian State and Delaware.

Football overkill in the Dallas area evidently was not a factor in the NCAA’s decision even though the Cotton Bowl, played at the Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, is also scheduled for Jan. 7 and the city could host at NFL playoff game that weekend.

Super Bowl XLV will be held at Cowboys Stadium Sunday, Feb. 6, 20011

Originally known as the NCAA I-AA
game, the title game moved to Chattanooga from Marshall University (Huntington, W. Va.) for the 1997 game. Chattanooga also won the bid in 2005.

Sports Committee chairman Jim Kennedy stated, “I’ve participated in a lot of presentations in my life, and I thought this one was one of the most complete and polished from virtually every perspective. The data was strong, the images were compelling, all of the presenters were on message and we had concise answers for their questions. I’m really not sure what else we reasonably could have done.’’

“We (Chattanooga committee) were very well prepared for our presentation and felt we answered all possible questions and felt good about retaining the game for another three years, but it didn’t work out that way,’’ Smith stated.

“We say thank you to the NCAA for letting us host the championship game for 13 years,’’ he said.

Chattanooga is known for taking a struggling event or new event and making it great and then having it move to another city.

The TSSAA Spring Fling is a good an example where Chattanooga gave birth to the five-sport high school state championship in the spring of 1993, worked to make it a five-star event, only to see it move first to Memphis and now to Murfreesboro.

“We had a record breaking year in 2009 ($25.1 million) as far as economic impact on our area through a variety of sporting events with the FCS game ($900,000) being about three precent of our overall total.

''Of course, we wanted to keep the game in Chattanooga, but we will continue to do what we do each day is to look for attractive events which have a solid economic impact for our city,’’ Smith said.

contact B.B. Branton at william.branton@comcast.net