Classic Shreveport/Bossier. Claims to be a huge sports market but will not attend events unless top-tier teams are involved. Then complains about not getting good sports events. Remember all those years of wanting the Cowboys to play an exhibition game in S'port? Cowboys come to town along with the Saints and S'port/Bossier does not show up because the teams' stars were not scheduled to play. Remember when there were only 16 bowls and S'port/Bossier said they would attend if match-ups were LSU-Arkansas or A&M-LSU, or LSU-Ole Miss. Remember the CFL and S'port/Bossier said it wasn't interested in CFL yet wanted NFL teams to come play? Didn't S'port/Bossier do a similar "we want the NBA" for the Continental Basketball League?
I think that notion goes back 40+ years to when the Indy Bowl was formed. It was a huge deal for the region. Also a minor league baseball team (AA Texas League?) and a great park for them back then.
Going into the early 90s they (the I-Bowl committee) began to get a bit cocky. JMO, but I think this is about the time things began to get tough for them. This is about the same time ESPN began buying bowl games and the number of bowl games grew to take care of all the "major" conference teams.
Time is your friend. Impulse is your enemy. -John Bogle
I think it was lack of TV involvement in the bowl and lack of involvement in college football 40 years ago. No TV money to be spread among the big boys. Only having 3 or 4 games to watch on Saturday was the norm even after ESPN came along.
13 bowls in 1977 - https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/years/1977-bowls.html
18 bowls in 1987 - https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/years/1987-bowls.html
20 bowls in 1997 - https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/years/1997-bowls.html
32 bowls in 2007 - https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/years/2007-bowls.html
40 bowls in 2017 - https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb...017-bowls.html