Meineke Car Care Bowl

The Continental Tire Bowl was a fantastic idea. A bowl game b/w an ACC team and Big East team (or a Big anything team) in Charlotte, NC is a great idea. Driving to Florida for a college football bowl game is a big time investment for someone in Atlanta, now imagine what happens when some team from Kansas is invited to FLA. Charlotte is not a difficult drive for all of the ACC and a lot of teams in other conferences too (I-95, I-85 what's the difference). They sold out 2 of the first 3 games and after the 1st sellout b/w Virginia and West Virginia, I decided buying tickets during the summer was a good idea. Pete was kind enough to go w/ me to the 2003 edition b/w Virginia and Pittsburgh, and after I renewed my tickets Dave and I went to the UNC/BC game last year. I was all set to buy those tickets on the 50 yard line 5 rows up in the upper deck again, but I got a letter from Raycom sports today telling me otherwise. The new and improved Meineke Car Care Bowl can no longer accomodate people like me. Now you have to become some kind of member to get tickets outside of your Master's domain. And I quote "In following steps with other bowl games, we have decided not to continue the sale and renewal of individual seats from within the bowl office. Beginning this year, Ticketmaster will handle the sale of all individual lower level ($55) and upper level seats ($30) seats....In an attempt to offer ticket holders the opportunity for prime lower level seats, we have created the enclosed Fan Packages. Included in these packages is a Bowl Booster Membership, which allows for newsletters, email updates, and same-seat renewal." I bought uppper level seats for $27.50 and a surcharge. The total for my 2 tickets on the 50 was under $60. Now I'm stuck watching it on tv. I don't think I'm going to use that $5 off an oil change at Meineke that they sent me w/ the letter.