ESPN Regional Television to Manage Heart of Dallas Bowl

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ESPN Regional Television to Manage Heart of Dallas Bowl

Photo of Rachel Margolis Siegal Rachel Margolis Siegal Follow on Twitter September 6, 2013

Game to Continue as Heart of Dallas Bowl Presented by PlainsCapital Bank

HODThe Heart of Dallas and ESPN Regional Television (ERT), a subsidiary of ESPN, pending the approval of a long-form agreement, have announced that ERT will acquire the Heart of Dallas Bowl and work with the Heart of Dallas charitable organization in its continuing efforts in the local Dallas community. As the only bowl that is named for a charity, the game will still be the Heart of Dallas Bowl presented by PlainsCapital Bank and will continue to commit resources to support local charities. The 2014 game will kickoff at noon ET on Wednesday, Jan. 1, with schools from Conference USA and the Big Ten Conference.

“This is a great day for the City of Dallas and the Heart of Dallas organization,” said Britton Banowsky, Heart of Dallas founder (and commissioner of Conference USA). “Working with ERT and partner conferences, we will be able to continue this bowl game in Dallas for many years to come. It also ensures that our mission to give back to the community will be funded well into the future. We are proud of the work we put into last year’s game and are confident that ERT will be able take it to the next level.”

“A bowl game in the historic Cotton Bowl on New Year’s Day that benefits worthy charities in Dallas is a unique opportunity that we could not pass up,” said Pete Derzis, senior vice president and general manager of ERT. “We look forward to hosting great bowl matchups that will generate revenue for the Heart of Dallas and their beneficiaries.”

After two seasons as the TicketCity Bowl, the name of the postseason game at the Cotton Bowl was changed to the Heart of Dallas Bowl. The 2013 game featured Oklahoma State of the Big 12 Conference against Purdue of the Big Ten Conference. The Cowboys posted a 58-14 win over the Boilermakers before a crowd of 48,313. The game raised $100,000 for the Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance, helping to move 225 individuals and families into permanent housing.

The Heart of Dallas Bowl becomes the second bowl game to be owned and operated by ERT in Dallas-Fort Worth. Based in Charlotte, ERT has run the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl since 2003. Brant Ringler, executive director of Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl, and his team will oversee both bowl games.

In July, it was announced that the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl had joined forces with the Heart of Dallas Bowl presented by PlainsCapital Bank to secure a commitment to have a Big Ten Conference school play in the postseason games, on a rotating basis, during a seven-year period (2013-2019 seasons).

In late August, the Big 12 Conference announced that one of its member schools will be playing in either the Heart of Dallas Bowl presented by PlainsCapital Bank or the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl starting with the 2014 season.  The Big 12 Conference will supply a selection in five of the six seasons (2014-2019), and will be a primary back-up selection in one of the years.

As intended when the NCAA sanctioned the bowls, this means that each year the two bowls will be uniquely different from each other. Over the next six years neither game will feature the same match up. Final match-ups and tie-ins will be announced at a later date.

Heart of Dallas
Heart of Dallas is a new nonprofit organization that hosts sports and entertainment events benefiting Dallas charities. It exists to fuel bold social change and to inspire the next generation of Dallas philanthropists. Find out more at theheartofdallas.org, or join the cause on Facebook.

PlainsCapital Bank, a subsidiary of PlainsCapital Corporation, is one of the largest independent banks in Texas with 34 branches in Arlington, Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Lubbock, San Antonio and Weatherford. In 1988, PlainsCapital Corporation, led by current chairman and CEO Alan B. White, acquired Plains National Bank in Lubbock, Texas. In 1999, Plains National Bank expanded to Dallas and opened its first branch on Turtle Creek Blvd. In 2003, Plains National changed its name to PlainsCapital Bank. In 2003, PlainsCapital Bank entered the Fort Worth market and began its first of two years of sponsorship with the Fort Worth Bowl (now the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl). In 2012, PlainsCapital Bank signed on as the presenting sponsor for the Heart of Dallas Bowl. PlainsCapital employees give their time and talent through board participations, blood drives and service events to help improve the quality of life in the communities where they live and work to organizations including the United Way, March of Dimes, American Diabetes Association, cancer research and numerous others. The bank concentrates their philanthropic efforts on programs that support education, health and wellness, and neighborhood improvement.

ESPN Events
ESPN Events, a division of ESPN Regional Television (ERT), owns and operates a large portfolio of collegiate sporting events worldwide. The roster includes two Labor Day weekend college football games; 10 college bowl games and eight college basketball events, which accounts for approximately 200 hours of programming, reaches almost 64 million viewers and attracts over a half a million attendees each year. With satellite offices in Boise, Birmingham, Dallas-Fort Worth, Albuquerque, St. Petersburg and Las Vegas, ESPN Events builds relationships with conferences, schools and local communities, as well as providing unique experiences for teams and fans.

A subsidiary of ESPN, ERT is also the production headquarters for ESPNU; syndication rights-holder and producer of national and regional shows for college conferences (SEC, American, Big 12, Mid-American) and manages the Big 12 Corporate Partner Program.

Collegiate Football
BBVA Compass Bowl (Birmingham, Ala.); Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl St. Petersburg; Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl (Dallas-Fort Worth); Camellia Bowl (Montgomery, Ala.); Famous Idaho Potato Bowl (Boise); Gildan New Mexico Bowl (Albuquerque); Heart of Dallas Bowl (Dallas-Fort Worth); Las Vegas Bowl; MEAC/SWAC Challenge presented by Disney (Orlando, Fla.); Texas Bowl (Houston); AdvoCare Texas Kickoff (Houston); Sheraton Hawai’i Bowl (Honolulu) and The Home Depot College Football Awards.

Collegiate Basketball
Armed Forces Classic (Camp Humphreys, South Korea); Charleston Classic (S.C.); Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic (Honolulu); Jimmy V Men’s & Women’s Basketball Classics presented by Corona Extra (Madison Square Garden & Durham, N.C.); Old Spice Classic (Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando, Fla.); Puerto Rico Tip-Off (San Juan, PR); State Farm Champions Classic (United Center, Chicago) and Wooden Legacy (Orange County, Calif.)

For more information, visit www.espnevents.com or follow on Twitter and Facebook.

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Photo of Rachel Margolis Siegal Rachel Margolis Siegal Follow on Twitter September 6, 2013
Photo of Rachel Margolis Siegal

Rachel Margolis Siegal

A part of the Internal Communications team at ESPN, I began with the network in 2010 as part of the College Sports PR team. Always an avid sports fan and not an athlete – I grew up a huge fan of the Hartford Whalers, while also watching my brother compete at different levels. I became the manager of several high school sports teams and continued that hobby into college. While at Quinnipiac, I worked in the Sports Information Department, which led me to a summer internship at the New Haven Ravens, a AA baseball team, and an eventual job with the Athletic Communications Department at the University of Connecticut. After my five-year stint at Connecticut, I spent six years as Director of Communications at the BIG EAST Conference in Providence, R.I. before joining ESPN.
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