The holiday season has one last gift for San Diegans: The SDCCU Holiday Bowl. The 43rd annual gridiron game moves to its new home at Petco Park for its first of (at least) five years.
UCLA Bruins will face NC State Wolfpack on Tues., Dec. 28, with a 5 p.m. PT kickoff. You may wonder why a football game in San Diego doesn’t feature a San Diego team. The selection process can be complicated, but there’s a simple answer — no San Diego universities are full members of the Pac-12 conference, but UCLA is. Meanwhile, NC State represents the Atlantic Coast Conference for the ACC’s first appearance in the bowl.
Touchdown in the outfield | Photo via San Diego Padres + @petcopark
Petco Park does a lot with its space during the San Diego Padres’ off-season, but this is the first time it will ever host a football game. The Holiday Bowl was hosted at San Diego County Credit Union Stadium until 2019 — it would’ve been hosted at Petco Park in 2020 if it wasn’t canceled.
Likely, you’ll have the same question we had: how does a stadium go from baseball to football? Petco Park needed to add concrete risers over existing seating to increase capacity to 50,000, install goal posts, modify 37-feet of outfield wall + relocate the bullpen entrance. After the game, it’ll transform back into a baseball stadium.
🏈 Want to join the fun? You can purchase tickets online.
🛋️ Prefer sofas to stadium seats? The game airs on FOX.
Not a football person? The Port of San Diego Holiday Bowl Parade (presented by Kaiser Permanente) — America’s largest balloon parade — brings fun to the whole family. The event is at 10 a.m. — also on Tues., Dec. 28 — and starts at North Embarcadero + continues south to Harbor Drive. Best of all, it’s free to watch from the street.