Charlotte's college bowl game now Meineke Car Care Bowl
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Posted 5:53AM on Wednesday, January 12, 2005
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Charlotte's college football bowl game is changing sponsors but retaining an automotive theme, as officials announced Tuesday that the Meineke Car Care Bowl will take the place of the Continental Tire Bowl.<br>
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``We are extremely excited that we have secured Meineke as the new title sponsor for the game,'' said Ken Haines, president and chief executive of Raycom Sports, which produces the late-December game. The contest has proved to be a huge success with two sellouts in its first three years.<br>
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Meineke, best known for installing mufflers, will have a three-year contract to sponsor the bowl. The game, which pits teams from the Big East and Atlantic Coast Conference, is played at Bank of America Stadium, home of the NFL's Carolina Panthers.<br>
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Financial terms were not released, although it was known that Continental's agreement with Raycom was for $1 million a year.<br>
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``Meineke and its chain of nearly 900 shops are delighted to sponsor the Meineke Car Care Bowl,'' said Ken Walker, president and chief executive of the Charlotte-based supplier of automotive services.<br>
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``The bowl will serve as a major step in broadening consumer awareness of our brand and extended product offering,'' he said. ``Our dealers will be energized by this relationship.''<br>
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Will Webb, executive director of the bowl game, called Meineke a ``strong, locally-based company with a national footprint and customer base and has been supportive of the game from the beginning.''<br>
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The Continental Tire Bowl was named one of the five-best startups in sports over the past five years by the Sports Business Journal, behind only the NFL Houston Texans and ``ESPN the Magazine.''<br>
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The game has been a sellout in two of its first three years, averaging more than 65,000 in attendance in that span. In last month's game, Boston College defeated North Carolina 37-24.<br>
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Founded in 1972 by Sam Meineke, Meineke Car Care Center began with one store and a single product, mufflers. The chain moved to Charlotte in 1986 and now has stores in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Venezuela and the Caribbean.
