There are plenty of good seats available at the Bahamas Bowl

By Sam Gardner
Published

We already know how difficult it is to host and participate in a bowl game overseas, and it’s apparently just as tough to fill the stadium, as well.

Eastern Michigan and Old Dominion took the field Friday afternoon in the Bahamas Bowl, and based on pictures from the game, it appears a crowd of dozens left the beach and showed up to take in the action.

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Those pictures only show one side of the stadium, of course, and the situation did appear better on the other, shadier side.

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Now, there are plenty of perfectly understandable reasons the game, at Thomas A. Robinson National Stadium, might be sparsely attended.

For starters, both teams took a rather long trip to get there in the first place. Eastern Michigan traveled more than 1,200 miles from Ypsilanti to get to Nassau, and Old Dominion had an 800-mile journey from Norfolk, Va. And even if fans wanted to make the drive to watch their teams play, they couldn’t. Flying is the only option, and doing so isn’t necessarily cheap, especially around the holidays.

Then there’s the issue of visitors needing a passport. And the fact that it’s two days before Christmas. And the fact that it’s a weekday afternoon. And the fact that resorts in the Bahamas are incredibly expensive. The list goes on and on.

Add to that the fact that locals in the Bahamas know little to nothing about American football — and certainly don’t follow Eastern Michigan and Old Dominion, even if they follow the sport — and it’s easy to see why there are so many good seats still available.

Officially, the 2014 Bahamas Bowl between Central Michigan and Western Kentucky drew 13,667 to the 15,000-seat stadium, and the 2015 game between Western Michigan and Middle Tennessee drew 13,321. But then again, this is what the crowd at those games actually looked like, so it’s entirely possible this one will go down as a sellout.

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