Camellia Bowl fans says Montgomery wasn't ready for tourist influx
With growth comes pain, and visiting college football fans are taking to social media to say they felt a lot of it in Montgomery this week at the 2022 Camellia Bowl.
“Terrible experience,” wrote Curtis Lokey on Twitter, in response to an official Camellia Bowl post thanking fans. “Just glad I ‘survived.’ Won’t be coming back to the Camellia Bowl.”
“The only place remotely ready for this bowl was @WaffleHouse,” wrote a visiting fan identified as Gregg. “Every other venue was closed or poorly maintained and stocked. When you have to go outside @CityofMGM to get food the night before a Bowl game because nothing is available in the city, that’s not incredible.”
Visiting fans also described having difficulty finding places to park, and said some were pulled over by police.
“This is the most Busch [sic] League football game I’ve ever experienced,” wrote @ole_sleepy.
This was the 9th Camellia Bowl since the game began in 2014, and it was televised live by ESPN. Besides that it was a clash of returning champions Georgia Southern Eagles (2018) and Buffalo Bulls (2020), the 2022 Camellia Bowl had a few firsts: It was held two days after Christmas, on a Tuesday during a work week, instead of on or before Christmas. It was held early in the day during lunch hour, with an 11 a.m. kickoff.
There also was no free parking near the stadium this time around. Those who didn’t have a parking pass from one of the ticket packages had to pay $20 to get in one of the three public lots.
The Advertiser published and promoted a story detailing these changes and the potential challenges the week prior to the game. That story focused primarily on parking and road closures. But it's unclear what, if any, outreach took place between city tourism officials and nearby restaurants and other hospitality businesses to prepare them for the influx of fans.
“We had a fantastic crowd. The crowd was great,” said Barry Allen, media director for Camellia Bowl, speaking Thursday. “I thought everything was fine.”
Allen referred questions about challenges this year to Camellia Bowl’s executive leaders. On Thursday the Advertiser left messages with Camellia Bowl assistant executive Clay Norrell, the city of Montgomery, and with the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce seeking comments about this week’s game.
“It’s the earliest kickoff that we’ve had so far,” Norrell told the Advertiser prior to the game. “We’re excited about it. Once you move after Christmas, you start moving with the big boys.”
Most of the fan complaints were from the Georgia Southern Eagles side, and have nothing to do with their 23-21 loss to Buffalo. Many of them flocked to nearby Montgomery, while Buffalo Bulls fans were stuck in winter conditions back home.
“How bad would all of this had been exacerbated if ‘The Storm of The Century’ hadn’t kept most Buffalo fans away from the bowl?” asked visiting Eagles fan John Glavin, who said he had a positive experience on his last Camellia Bowl visit to Montgomery in 2018.
Glavin and many other fans say a lack of communication was the core of the problems fans faced on Monday and Tuesday. There were two main themes among their complaints:
They said there was a lack of places to eat and drink in Montgomery on Monday night. Glavin recalled a trek around downtown Montgomery searching for an open bar that wasn’t overcrowded and understaffed.
“Our staff did report that some fans expressed displeasure with the limited dining / entertainment options available in the area,” said Mike Watson, owner of Commerce BeerWorks, Aviator Bar and AlleyBAR, in an email Thursday. “However, based on my observations, those that gravitated from the hotels over to AviatorBAR before and after the game certainly enjoyed themselves.”
Watson said the area has labor shortages, and that staff requests for time off during holidays may have contributed to the problems.
Were businesses contacted to warn them that thousands of fans would be arriving Monday?
“As noted, we are always tuned-in and follow news about the Camellia Bowl plans,” Watson said. “Unfortunately….we seem to have “fallen out of the loop” on the City of MGM official notices about upcoming events, etc. So….I do not really know what type of advance notice on crowd expectations they may have given to downtown businesses.”
There was also a lack of understanding on how to get into the stadium on Tuesday, and dealing with long lines that stretched down the closed Madison Avenue. Several fans captured the scene in video.
“We stood in line for a half a hour when one of our party walked up to the entrance and discovered everyone was lining up at the will call window,” Glavin said. “If you had tickets, you could walk right in. Why didn’t any of the personnel periodically walk up the line and explain that to the fans?”
Glavin said that half-way through the third quarter, there were still people who hadn’t made it into the stadium.
Apparently many fans needed a drink after finally making it in.
“The stadium was out of beer a third of the way through the game,” Glavin said.
Looking back to 2014
When the game came here in 2014, there was a focus on giving back to the community through football. Camellia Bowl officials announced a youth football clinic, did an outreach program for leadership skills and good citizenship, and a free clinic for area coaches.
“The more we can enhance the game of football, the better it’s going to be in years to come,” Camellia Bowl executive director Johnny Williams told the Advertiser in 2014.
Things were a little bigger for fans, too. Along with a street festival and pep rally for both teams, the city’s Christmas parade was scheduled so that fans could attend, and Montgomery held a fireworks show.
For that first game between Bowling Green and South Alabama, then-Mayor Todd Strange estimated that the city would see an economic impact of as much as $10 million.
Montgomery Advertiser reporter Shannon Heupel covers things to do in the River Region. Contact him at sheupel@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Camellia Bowl fans say Montgomery wasn't ready for visitors
