Despite one of the game's participating schools having trouble selling tickets, approximately 37,000 tickets have been sold so far for the Little Caesar's Pizza Bowl on Dec. 26 at Ford Field.
That's according to Ken Hoffman, the bowl's chairman and executive director.
The game, known as the Motor City Bowl until the Detroit-based pizza chain picked up the naming rights last year, will pit the University of Toledo (8-4) against Florida International University (6-6).
Kickoff is at 8:30 p.m. and the game will be televised live on ESPN.
The Sun Belt Conference gave Florida International — appearing in its first bowl game — a $300,000 bowl appearance prize to offset the fact that the school has sold less than 1,000 tickets to game, the Miami Herald reported on Dec. 16.
The past 13 bowls have averaged 46,000 in announced attendance. The biggest crowd was 60,624 for Purdue University's 51-48 thriller over Central Michigan University in 2007.
The smallest was last year's 30,331 to see Marshall University beat Ohio University 21-17.
The money given to FIU will be used to help offset the team's travel expenses.
Florida International and Toledo will each get $750,000 for appearing in the bowl, but that amount is based on how many tickets the school sells, the newspaper reported.
Without the stipend from the conference, the Golden Panthers may have taken a considerable financial loss on the game.
The Sun Belt reportedly gave Conference co-champion Troy University $250,000 for its 48-21 victory over Ohio University in the New Orleans Bowl on Dec. 18. The conference also gave Middle Tennessee State for its Jan. 6 game against Miami University in the GoDaddy.com Bowl (formerly the GMAC Bowl).
