Transcript
Speaker 2: Good morning, Tucson.
Speaker 1: It’s 11:32 on a beautiful Christmas Eve morning here in the Old Pueblo. We hope you’ve been enjoying the holiday music mix independent radio Style. Thank you DJ bang for some wonderful Tunes this morning including that last one from The Waitresses Christmas wrapping and we’ll be back to the Christmas tunes this afternoon. Right now although you may be relaxing this weekend because you’re hanging out with family or maybe you’re freaking out because you’re hanging out with family regardless of your plans for the day. I appreciate that. You’re spending a few minutes of that with us here on 98.1 today is December 24th. My name is Tom. He’s and you’re listening to Life along the streetcar each week. We focus on social cultural and economic impacts in Tucson’s Urban core and we shed some light on those hidden gems. Everyone should know about From a mountain to the U of A and all stops in between you get the inside track right here at 99.1 FM also streaming on Downtown Radio dot org and available on
Speaker 1: your iPhone or Android with the TuneIn app. And this is a community participation show. So we welcome those comments. Keep them coming reach us by email contact at Life along the streetcar dot-org interact with us on Facebook at Life along the streetcar. And follow us on Twitter at streetcar life. We do ask that you like and share so that we can connect with others on social media that have similar interest in passions. It’ll today is December 24th, and we were given the option of taking the day off, but I’ll tell you what there’s so much going on here in Tucson this week. I just had to get on the radio and share it with you. It is Bowl week here in Tucson and this week we will discuss the community impact of the Nova Home Loans, Arizona Bowl. Plus or some upcoming events here in January. We need to be prepared for there’s a facelift among a series of Renovations downtown and we’re going to start the day with the logistical anomaly known as Santa Claus. You might expect Santa to be reading his
Speaker 1: sleigh. It is Workshop up North but instead he’s been bouncing around Tucson. Perhaps he was confused about his location since we’ve had a blustery although brief winter for a couple of days maybe thought he was at the North Pole or perhaps he saw the forecast for this week and said, you know what I’m gonna hang out in 70-degree temperatures whatever his reason Santa is still in Tucson. He was part of the downtown Tucson Partnerships movie in the Plaza on Friday night where the public watched a giant outdoor screening of A Christmas Story. And you can see him downtown today at Miracle on Congress, which is located at 260 East Congress and its that joint project with the playground Hub that group bringing Christmas to the downtown community. They’ll be crafts cocoa cookies, and I understand there’s free pictures with Santa from 1 to 4 Miracle on Congress has a variety of Charity sponsors throughout their tenure here down here and this week on the final weekend. It’s the Big brothers and big
Speaker 1: sisters of Tucson whose headquarters is also just around the corner. As a kid, I remember thinking there is no way that Santa could deliver toys to all those kids around the world just in one night. But today I know it to be true. I don’t really understand it. But I guess I don’t have to you see I know it’s true because at the same time people are visiting Santa on Congress there listening to him read a night before Christmas in Main Gate Square. That’s right. Santa’s readings are at 1:30, 2:30 and 3:30 today on Boulevard which is known throughout the rest of the year as University Avenue Main Gate Square. He’ll be available there for free pictures as well from 1 to 4. So 2 slots 1 to 4, we can see Santa and the urban core here and if he can be in two places at one time prepping for the biggest logistical phenomenon. This world has ever known you can easily deliver toys across the globe and just a matter of hours. Well, my name is Tom Heath. You’re listening to Life along the streetcar. Are
Speaker 1: on Downtown Radio 99.1 FM Tucson also available for streaming from Downtown Radio dot org. If you’ve got that fancy TuneIn app on your Android or iPhone you can find our station with all of our programming there. Now
Speaker 1: in its third year the Nova Home Loans, Arizona Bowl continues to grow in size and stature. The attendance is projected to be the largest yet. And there’s a new deal with CBS sports that’s going to put the game in thousands of additional households Across the Nation local businesses anticipate a multi-million dollar impact to our economy and local charities are looking for great results because they’re the beneficiary of this bowl game. We sat down with Adair of Nova Home Loans and an executive committee member for the Arizona Bowl to discuss what makes this game unique why no, but chose to be the title sponsor and what we can expect between now and Friday.
Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Kim Adair. I am the senior vice president of marketing and business development for Nova Home Loans, and I am on the executive committee from the Nova Home Loans are available. This is a third year and each year. It gets a little better better each time.
Speaker 1: So what prompted know Ava and this group that got together to bring a bowl game to Tucson
Speaker 2: so there was a really incredible group of people that wanted to bring a bowl game to Tucson and in order to do that, they needed a title sponsor and actually I’ll leave far hang who’s the chairman of the board of above the of the bowl reached out to John Volpe who he knew loved football and actually both of them are coaches for Southpoint football at the time and asked John if he’d be interested in having A home loans is the title sponsor for the bowl. And as soon as in John found out that all net proceeds for this bowl go back to local charities. He was definitely interested. And so we worked out all of the details and Nova came on as the as the title sponsor for the Nova Home Loans, Arizona Bowl.
Speaker 1: So if I understand what you’re saying the what would consider profits don’t go back into a corporation. They go back into Tucson
Speaker 2: exactly. So we have to cover our expenses and operating expenses for putting on the bowl, but after that, That is complete all of the net proceeds of the pole. Go back into local charities the way it’s set up now is that our biggest sponsors get to determine where the net proceeds go to charity and that helps us keep sponsorships coming through and keeping them sustainable year over year because they get a they get to have a direct impact on where the charitable funds go. It’s something I saw. I don’t know if you’ve done it every year but so I saw last year was you Alec?
Speaker 1: The certain amount of tickets to Veterans and First
Speaker 2: Responders. Yes. So actually we didn’t allocate tickets. We had tickets under written and paid for by local companies and individuals they purchase those tickets with the understanding that they want those tickets to go to Local Heroes. So last year, I believe we had about 13 thousand tickets go to Local Heroes and that’s active military veterans First Responders and teachers and that means the proceeds from 13,000 tickets went to local charities. Absolutely. So let’s talk about the Bowl this year you’ve Got two teams if they got an interesting story to pass one hasn’t been to a bowl game in almost 60 years. Yes. Tell me who’s playing this year, New Mexico State University Aggies versus the Utah State Aggies. Last time these two met in a bowl game was 57 years ago in the Sun Bowl and New Mexico State won that year. And that was the last time New Mexico State went to a bowl game 57 years ago, New Mexico state for sure is so excited to come and And get to have a whole Bowl experience for their
Speaker 2: football team and their fans. How does the Bowl selection process work the conference’s that we are aligned with and we’re aligned with the Mountain West Conference and the Sun Belt Conference. They actually select which teams go to which both so we work with the conferences and we put in our pics and we tell them who we really really like to have a lot of that has to do with proximity to Tucson because of course we want to fill our Stadium because the more people that attend the more tickets that we Sell the more money that goes to charity. So having people that can travel to Tucson and have a really great fan base is really important to us and I’ve heard that this will probably be the largest attended Bowl so far. I believe it will be. Yes. We’ve had more ticket sales by this time this year than we did last year for sure. And there’s a lot of excitement with New Mexico. They have already sold out there a lot meant of tickets and have purchased more tickets for their fans. I think we’re going
Speaker 2: to have a really full Stadium on December 29th. So the game is December. At 3:30 p.m. At Arizona stadium and I believe a lie Farhan. He guaranteed 60 degree weather. No, you’re wrong. He guaranteed 70.3 degree weather. We had that last year. So we’re hoping that we have it again this year. Well, well, well hold him to that but the bowl game is a piece of a week to tell me about tell me about what happens. When did when did things really kick off? It really kicks off on December 28th when we have the University of Arizona. Downtown block party in Armory Park and it’s going to be a fabulous event where the teams come and their fans come along with local tucsonans to join in. The festivities will be food and drink and Ferris wheels and entertainment 80s and gentlemen performing and the bands of each of the schools will have a battle of bands. They’re just a really great fun event pep rally to get everybody excited for the game. Is there a cost to attend the rally that is free to everybody that’s
Speaker 2: just a community event to celebrate the team’s It’s absolutely free and then the games on the 29th, and there’s a pregame event. There’s a there we have the Desert Diamond Casino tailgate Festival. First of all, we’ve got Neon Trees they are going to be performing at one o’clock. We also have lots of food and drinks and music and entertainment and then we also have our famous nacho average tailgate festival and that’s an extra 15 bucks and you get all you can eat nachos and beer at this wonderful. She’s out of that. So people are be traveling here
Speaker 1: from Utah, New Mexico and probably others and I’ve I’ve seen on Facebook a lot of people especially from New Mexico State live in Tucson. So there I know they’re excited but you’re going to be bringing thousands of people to Tucson has there been a study on the economic impact of the bowl
Speaker 2: game. We had a 40% increase in attendance you’re over here last year and we’d about 34,000 people in the stands. I’m in that generated about a 21 million dollar economic impact for Southern Arizona things spent on Hotel rooms restaurants souvenirs shopping gasps all of the things that people take advantage of when they come to Tucson to visit and that’s outside of the money donated and raised for the Charities. Yes, that’s outside. Is there a figure of how much has been donated over the last couple of years? Yeah. So last year we were able to donate over two hundred thousand dollars to local charities and the year before that was $100,000. This year we hope to even give more now probably one of the most crucial
Speaker 1: questions that circulating through people’s minds right now
Speaker 2: is the quality of your swag
Speaker 1: bag because you’ve gotten some recognition nationally for what goes in that bag and these players. I think the first year they got custom-made cowboy
Speaker 2: boots. They did. Yes, we put a lot of effort into ensuring that the things that these players are getting are things that they really are going to be wowed about because what it really comes down to This is offering an amazing experience to these football players who some of them have never been to Arizona or the Southwest there or I’ve never experienced anything like we offer here in Tucson. And so we’re trying to give them the best Hospitality that we can possibly give them and part of that is offering these terrific these terrific gifts to them when they come to Tucson. When do they what are the teams arrived in Tucson?
Speaker 1: And what do they do up leading up to the game?
Speaker 2: Most of the teams will Arrive, most of the players will arrive on the 25th of the 26th. And then on the 27th of December, we have a private team party for the teams and so both teams come together. We have dinner. We’re going to do that at Old Tucson Studios and have a shootout and some rodeo events for them to participate in it’s a really great time and it’s a great time for us to all kind of let our hair down before the competition starts and have a good time and celebrate just being here in Tucson for a bowl game. And then the next day we also we actually Great with the women and the children coming for the bowl the wives and the children of the coaches and the athletic directors and all of the people involved with the bowl and we celebrate them and have a great lunch and and shopping event with them and some great things for the kids to and then I’m assuming they’re staying at some of the nicer Resorts here around town. Yes. They are. Yeah, we’re giving them a 4 star 5 Star experience for
Speaker 2: sure. One of the things that we’ve heard from the from the teams that have come. Who is that? This was one of the best Bowl experiences. They have ever participated in and the warmth and Hospitality of Tucson and Southern Arizona just goes a long way and now we’ve become a bowl that everybody wants to come to because they know they’re going to come and have warm weather stay in beautiful hotels have wonderful meals and meet really amazing people while they’re here.
Speaker 1: Well, the fans I believe will be excited. We have a new hotel downtown
Speaker 2: absolutely downtown is a huge part of our festivities. In fact the AC. Marriott Hotel will be the designated hotel for all VIPs and press for the events covering downtown using the streetcar to get down to the university for the game. It’s just a perfect opportunity for us to Showcase how amazing our downtown has become. We are so proud to be the title sponsor of this bowl game knowing that we’re able to give such a positive impact to the community Through economic development through the charitable donations and also impacting the lives of all these student athletes that come and get to visit Tucson and have this experience. It’s a thrill for us and we look forward to Tucson and praising. This is their game coming out and buying tickets so that we can give lots of money to Charities over the next year. We’re can people get tickets you can find your Gets at www.noventri.com Arizona bowl.com and we will link to that. Of course on our our Facebook page as well. Let’s talk about the TV as well
Speaker 2: for just a moment
Speaker 1: because that’s something new this year. You’ve got a partnership with with CBS Sports.
Speaker 2: Yes with CBS Sports. So we are thrilled that CBS Sports Network will be airing our game live on December 29th at 3:30. They have been a terrific partner. It allows us to keep autonomy. Of the bowl and be able to continue to pick the day and time of our Bowl which is very important to us and they are sending out their full production team. They’re making a huge investment in making sure that this bowl is well promoted on CBS Sports Network along with CBS network itself, and we’re very excited by this partnership. There are there are tremendous partner for us and that’s new this year. Yes. Clearly that’s a
Speaker 1: reflection of the excitement from the previous two years.
Speaker 2: A claim we have a continued agreement with them for the next two years as well. Outstanding well, if you’re in Tucson, you can watch it on
Speaker 1: TV, but you really don’t want to do that miss the experience of the
Speaker 2: game and at 70 degree weather. What do you have to miss now? It’s perfect. And because this is a bowl event not associated with the university we sell we sell beer in the stadium. So it’s another great reason to come out have a cold beer and watch a football game with us and the tickets do they all include access to the tailgate? Yes, and the tailgate is free to everybody that has a Bowl ticket and You mentioned this this year. We have a bowl after party Downtown again an Armory Park and we are so excited to announce that we’ve booked Flock of Seagulls to perform at that party. So that’s going to be another wonderful event drawing people downtown and celebrating one of the teams that have just won the bowl down to Armory Park and there’s that’s the day of the ball is in the evening after the Ballgame the Ballgame. Yes, so you can come downtown Flock of Seagulls. You got to get Your hair done got to get your hair up. Yep. If you ready to sing put on your 80s outfit that I was doing. There’ll be
Speaker 2: food trucks that that kind of atmosphere will be a whole festival. All right. Well, if you live in the area be prepared for an influx of Aggies, yes one weird. You can certainly put go Aggies in
Speaker 1: your front yard, and everyone will be happy. Yeah, I am. I’m sure both teams are excited. They’re both named the Aggies. So it’s been kind of dubbed the the Aggie Bowl here, but I’m seeing more from New Mexico State think there’s more alumni here and I know they they saw there are there a lot of tickets very early and requested some additional ones. So there should be a large influx and because it’s their first bowl game in sometime there’s excitement and even recently an anonymous donor offered 3200 full-time employees of the Cruces Public Schools faculty and staff to tickets each for the game. So that’s four sixty four hundred tickets that were offered with a donation some around a hundred and sixty thousand dollars if everyone accepts and of course, we know that that money then would be heading to Tucson Charities. So go a G’s tickets are available online and we’ll have that link on Facebook. You can also pick them up in person the bowl headquarters. It’s at 147 North Stone. And for full
Speaker 1: disclosure, I do what I’m not in the air work for Nova Home Loans, and I am an underwriter of this station also on our Facebook page. You can hear the full interview with Kim and we’ll have the the link for the tickets the link for the article about the anonymous donor. So you can get a little more insight into what’s going on this week. And are you putting events on your calendar for next year? It’s probably a good idea because there are a tremendous amount of activities in the Old Pueblo between January and April. It is a jam-packed season here in Tucson. Just a few weeks away a couple of weeks at this point the Tucson jazz festival starts on January 11th and runs through the 21st. And then the Gem and Mineral show then kicks off on the 27th of January and that’s going to go through mid-February and both of these are heavy impacts on the urban core and as Get out of that. We move into Rodeo PGA golf and then all of a sudden it’s it’s the Fourth Avenue Spring Street Fair time flies. Doesn’t it
Speaker 1: were already a third of the way through next year and we haven’t quite finished this year, but all of these events rely heavily on volunteers and we’ll link to the various events on our Facebook page so you can check them out see if there’s a fit for you something you enjoy and you can give back as well. Our goal is to have these Events on upcoming shows and a little bit more in-depth and please leave room in March for the Tucson Festival of books, even though it’s three months out. They’ll be releasing their volunteer schedule very soon here. And annually, the festival needs about to about 2,000 positions filled by volunteers to cover this two-day event like the Arizona Bowl. The Festival of books is designed to give back now in its 10th year. The festival has donated just shy of two million dollars to local literacy. Fans and remarkably they’ve done this while keeping the admission free to the public. The money raised then comes from donations sponsors and exhibitor fees the festival, you
Speaker 1: know, according the website and I would recreate this the festival’s of Community Wide celebration of literature with over 400 authors and those authors range from brand new emerging authors that we may have just been getting our first look at two bestsellers. They participate in presentations panels workshops and they attract a wide and diverse audience you throw in a literary. Just a couple hundred exhibitor booths some food courts, and you know what, you have yourself a pretty good event on the U of A campus keeping it free to the public and still being a revenue generator for local literacy efforts is a tough balance. And honestly, I believe those two thousand volunteers shifts are the key to making that work because that’s money not spent on staff not spent on operations its money being used for our community. Again, we’ll link to all of those groups here on our Facebook page check them out and maybe can give back a little bit here to Tucson with a few hours of your time. You’re listening to
Speaker 1: Life along the streetcar 99.1 FM and streaming on Downtown Radio dot-org. And speaking of Tucson Traditions. There’s a good article today on the front page of the Arizona Daily Star about the Marist College facelift Marist College is the building on the corner of a choa and it’s across from the the the TCC. It’s another one of those great projects underway with repurposing of space the original design of the Marist College from 1915 was a Marvel at the time because of its use of Adobe for such a large. It was the first of its kind as a three-storey. I’m not sure how many other three-story Adobe buildings are out there, but there are not a lot and soon after they constructed it. We had an influx of materials from the East because we have recently received the the railroad and all of a sudden we had more Building Products to work with and designers moved away from Adobe for these large scale projects in 1924. The mayor’s College went from an all-boys school to one. It was integrated not just with
Speaker 1: sex but also with race Arizona was still segregated at that point and Marist the school. There was one of the first To become integrated and like many of the structures in the downtown area. It’s been used for multiple purposes until recently being declared unsafe and it was abandoned for years because of its structural issues and the marriage college now undergoing this facelift, which is really fun to watch as you’re walking through that area and it’s it’s going to end up being a senior affordable housing living area as well as a community center. And the name is going to be called the the Marist on Cathedral Square and it’s part of the major changes underway around saying augustin’s Cathedral. We’re going to talk a lot more about Cathedral Square and the new community focused areas and Senior Living that’s coming that we part of our 2018 lineup. What else is coming on Life along the streetcar what we’re going to wrap up this year on our final show of 2017 featuring the Marshal foundation and
Speaker 1: the legacy of Louise Marshall. She was one of the first to recognize the need for transportation links between the U of A and the downtown area and she became an early investor in the streetcar and by early. I mean like 1903 kind of early. She was doubted when she bought desert land outside the U of A, which she’ll in converted to retail space in 1922. And we now call that Main Gate Square. Her foundation the Marshal Foundation still owns much of that land and uses its profits to support local community organizations. Now her life was not without controversy and a little drama. So we’ll share the Intriguing story of a Tucson Pioneer. That’s next Sunday at 11:30. And as we roll into 2018, we’re going to continue to bring a mix of social cultural and economic impact stories. We have some exciting interviews lined up and of course we are always welcoming that Community feedback things to look forward to in 2018. We’re going to take a hike on The Turquoise Trail a little conversation with some ice
Speaker 1: skating Birds, maybe a controversy or two. And something works cited about the show is going to get a new look from a local artist. Sounds like it’s going to be a great year. Of course all the links from today’s show along with Kim adair’s interview about the Nova Home Loans, Arizona Bowl are linked on our Facebook page. Are
Speaker 1: you involved with our community? What is your passion? You are listening to a hyper local show. We feature three to four miles of of an urban core as the focus of this show. So either you know, what’s going on or you’re trying to find out a little bit more information. Now collaboration is the key for us to have success. And so what we’re doing is putting out our social media and ask for you to share it so we can connect with others reach us by email contact at Life along the streetcar dot-org interact with us on Facebook Life along the streetcar and now you can follow us on Twitter at streetcar life. Well, we’re going to head back to the holiday music today. I am going to leave you with. a little song from Johnny Cash from his album This is come little day. Hold me for my favorite holiday songs because you King to see I don’t have a gift to bring our finest pocket like for you bring her up and talk to you next week to lay before the king.
