Community Outreach

The Valero Alamo Bowl stages a premier college football game as the showcase of an annual festival of events.

Mission
The Valero Alamo Bowl was created in 1993 to provide memorable experiences to South Texans, San Antonians, visitors, and the participating universities while creating a positive economic impact and national attention for our community.

In its 32nd year, the Valero Alamo Bowl boasts an enviable track record of exciting games in front of 60,000+ crowds, an average total economic impact of $40 million, and 5 million annual viewers to the ESPN broadcast providing valuable exposure for both the city and the schools playing in the game.

The first 30 games combined to attract over 1.75 million spectators, generate a total economic impact in excess of $1 billion dollars, and contribute over $143 million to higher education through team payouts ($134.6 million) and local scholarships ($8.4 million).

Bowl Growth 
After paying each team playing in the 1993 Builders Square Alamo Bowl $720,000, the combined team payout to the Big 12 and Pac-12 will be over $9.6 million for the 2023 Valero Alamo Bowl.

Raising more money for the higher payouts has been worth the extra expense as it delivers higher profile teams to San Antonio which translates into greater recognition, tourism, and economic vibrancy to the city.

The 2023 Valero Alamo Bowl will be the tenth time the #1 teams from Big 12 and Pac‐12 conferences outside the CFP have played each other in San Antonio. Seven of the 10 games have featured Top 20 match-ups.

Neutral Site Games
Since economic development is the Valero Alamo Bowl’s focus and basis of the organization’s non-profit status, the Valero Alamo Bowl also strives to bring other events to San Antonio that deliver positive results.

In addition to annually producing the Valero Alamo Bowl and its 20+ ancillary events, the organization has also served as the local host for 11 neutral site games that have combined to deliver $167 million in total economic impact for San Antonio. These games include three Big 12 Football Championships (1997, 1999, and 2007) and two Notre Dame Shamrock Series games (2009 and 2016).

The most impactful of these games was the 2007 Big 12 Football Championship. The game featured #9 Oklahoma’s upset win against #1 Missouri. It was ABC/ESPN’s most-watched college regular season game of the year with 11.8 million viewers. In addition to the media exposure for San Antonio, the fans traveling to watch this Top 10 match-up delivered a $57.8 million total economic impact for the city.

Community Programs
The growth of the Valero Alamo Bowl along with the longtime support of our title sponsor in Valero and TV partner in ESPN has allowed our community outreach to increase.

In June 2017, the Valero Alamo Bowl contributed $6 million for technology upgrades at the Alamodome. This new funding allowed an expanded public Wi-Fi system, two additional HD video screens and sound system upgrades. This brought a total of $60 million in Alamodome improvements in time for the facility to host the 2018 NCAA Men’s Final Four and all the other events in the facility.

Valero, who has been a sponsor of the bowl since its inception and title sponsor since 2007, along with a loyal base of partners and ticket buyers have fueled the expansion of the Bowl’s community programs several of which are listed below.

Scholarships

The Valero Alamo Bowl started a scholarship program in 2000 with 26 San Antonio high school students splitting $52,000 in scholarships.

The success of the game allowed the Bowl to annually increase our scholarship giving as well as add a college scholarship program in 2016 with matching support from each San Antonio area four-year university. These two programs now combine to award $1.2 million to 180+ deserving students representing every San Antonio area high school and four-year university. This amount is the largest local scholarship total among the 40+ bowl games. 

Thanks to a record setting 2022 season with 188 winners splitting over $1.1 million, the Valero Alamo Bowl has now awarded over $9.5 million in scholarships split between 1,580 area winners since 2000.

For information on how you support the Bowl scholarship programs, please call 210-704-6388 or email here.

Extra Yard for Teachers

Each year the Valero Alamo Bowl and PNC Bank award 30 grants to 30 dedicated teachers as part of the College Football Playoff Foundation’s Extra Yard for Teachers program.

With continued support from PNC Bank as well as Accenture Federal Services, KPMG, and Ryan Velasquez, the Valero Alamo Bowl will again visit San Antonio area campuses to surprise many of the winning teachers with their well-deserved awards.

For 2023, Valero joined the College Football Playoff Foundation and ESPN to debut a “Touchdown for Teachers” program where a $1,000 grant will be awarded to a different deserving teacher for every touchdown scored in the Valero Alamo Bowl.

Military Appreciation Programs

San Antonio’s military community is an important part of the city and its history. With the help of our military appreciation partner USAA, the Valero Alamo Bowl annually hosts members of the Wounded Warriors Project, USO, and Vet Tix each year. These efforts are also supported thanks to contributions from Anne and Steve Ballantyne, Bud Light/Silver Eagle Beverages, Hero Hut, The Law Offices of William B. Kingman, and Teresa and David R. Schmidt.

The Valero Alamo Bowl also underwrites specially priced tickets to allow another 1,500 military personnel and their families to attend each game.

Fill The Bowl Food Drive Presented by Texas Mutual Insurance Company

For the last 25 years, the Valero Alamo Bowl has teamed up with the San Antonio Food Bank for the “Fill the Bowl Food Drive Presented by Texas Mutual” fundraiser to help provide meals for local families.

Youth Support

To provide opportunities for deserving youth to see the excitement of college football in person, the Valero Alamo Bowl matches donations from our partners to underwrite an average of 1,000 game tickets for local charity organizations such as Baptist Children’s Home, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Boys and Girls Club, Family Service Association, First Tee, and Youth Alternatives to attend as a group.

An annual Bowl Week tradition is the each participating university hosting the residents of Boysville at a practice. Following lunch, the players toss footballs, run races, and do dance moves with the children who attend the game.

To register a non-profit as a perspective beneficiary of these group charity tickets or become a donor, please email the bowl office by November 15 each year.

To request more information or discuss ways to partner on a community relations program, please e-mail Rick Hill.