Holiday Bowl files lawsuit against Pac-12, UC Regents to recover losses from scuttled 2021 game

The Holiday Bowl is suing the Pac-12 and UC Regents to recover more than $3 million in losses suffered when UCLA pulled out of the 2021 bowl game less than five hours before kickoff against North Carolina State.

A lawsuit was filed on behalf of the San Diego Bowl Game Association, which was filed late Tuesday in County of San Diego Superior Court and received Wednesday morning before being made public.

The 10-page complaint comes after nearly 1 1/2 years of negotiations between Holiday Bowl and Pac-12 representatives to resolve a dispute over financial losses that wiped out bowl reserves accumulated over the game’s then-43-year history.

It marked the second straight year without a game. The 2020 contest was canceled because of COVID-19 restrictions.

The 2022 Holiday Bowl was played, with Oregon beating North Carolina 28-27 at Petco Park. The game’s $6.2 million payout was to be split between the conferences. Payment was made to the ACC.

According to the complaint, the Holiday Bowl is holding back the Pac-12 payout from the 2022 game (reconciled as $2.45 million) as an offset for the 2021 losses until the matter can be resolved. This, in turn, led the Pac-12 to threaten a legal claim to the 2022 payout.

The Holiday Bowl insists that UCLA’s non-performance makes the Pac-12 contractually obligated to cover the game’s losses.

Mark Neville, CEO of Sports San Diego, which produces the annual Holiday Bowl, had no comment on the lawsuit.

A Pac-12 statement released Wednesday said: “Despite the Pac-12’s good faith efforts to find an amicable and fair resolution, the Holiday Bowl filed a lawsuit this week seeking to leverage for its own financial gain the global COVID-19 pandemic which led to the cancellation of the 2021 Holiday Bowl. The Holiday Bowl is now also refusing to pay the fees it owes the Pac-12 for our member institution’s participation in the 2022 Holiday Bowl, in clear breach of our agreement.

“The Pac-12 plans to vigorously defend against the lawsuit, which is wholly without merit, and to seek the monies owed by the Holiday Bowl under our agreement.”

According to the complaint, the contract states that the parties “agree to indemnify and hold harmless each other against and in respect of any and all claims, losses, expenses, costs, obligations and liabilities” any action that results in a “failure to perform” by any party to the agreement.

A day before UCLA was to play North Carolina State in the 2021 SDCCU Holiday Bowl, Bruins coach Chip Kelly spoke like nothing would keep the Bruins from taking the field for the Holiday Bowl’s downtown debut at Petco Park.

“Our whole mindset,” Kelly said, “has always been if we’ve got 11, we’re going to go play.”

At 12:33 p.m. on game day, the UCLA football program’s Twitter account posted: “The UCLA football team is unable to participate in tonight’s San Diego County Credit Union Holiday Bowl due to COVID-19 protocols within the Bruins’ program.”

UCLA reportedly had three defensive linemen test positive for COVID-19 the morning of the game.

“UCLA knew the situation when it accepted the invitation to play in the game,” said a source close to the situation. “When they elected not to play, they accepted the consequences of that decision.”

According to the complaint, the Pac-12 contends UCLA should be excused from non-performance by “force majeure,” a legal term that covers “uncontrollable events” such as war, terrorism, labor stoppages or extreme weather a contract that make it impossible for a party to perform.

In the complaint, the Holiday Bowl asserts the force majeure paragraph in the contract, which was executed in 2019, does not cover COVID-19 and noted “the force majeure clause could have been negotiated to include pandemic impacts and considerations and was not.

“UCLA made a voluntary, personal decision in choosing not to play, and neither UCLA nor the Pac-12 (is) excused from the financial consequences of that decision; instead, both remain obligated to compensate SDBGA for the harms it suffered as a result of UCLA’s choice.”

When UCLA withdrew from the game, North Carolina State was blindsided by the announcement.

Wolfpack head coach Dave Doeren was unaware UCLA had such extensive issues with COVID-19 until N.C. State AD Boo Corrigan informed him the game was canceled shortly before the news became public 4 1/2 hours before kickoff.

“Felt lied to, to be honest,” Doeren said later. “We felt like UCLA probably knew something was going on, didn’t tell anybody on our side. We had no clue they were up against that.

“I don’t feel like it was very well handled from their university. It would have been great to have had a heads-up so two or three days ago we could have found a Plan B. Disappointing.”

In response to Doeren’s comments, UCLA AD Martin Jarmond tweeted: “With today’s COVID results, our medical staff deemed it unsafe for us to compete this evening. While we had isolated COVID challenges, we were still in a position to compete up until today. I am truly disappointed for everyone who was involved with the game.”

The Holiday Bowl is the Pac-12’s oldest bowl partner outside of the Rose Bowl and Sun Bowl. It has made more than $50 million in payouts to Pac-12 members since 1998.

The Holiday Bowl canceled its 2020 game two months before kickoff during the first year of the pandemic. The decision enabled the bowl game to avoid most of the costs that come with staging the game.

Virtually all costs were incurred for the 2021 game. The complaint states that the Holiday Bowl’s losses “exceeded $7.8 million.”

The game’s three primary revenue streams were eliminated by not playing.

The complaint notes that the Holiday Bowl forfeited more than $3.6 million in ticket revenue that had to be refunded, $1.4 million that title sponsor SDCCU demanded be returned or credited to 2022 and more than $2.8 million in other revenue that include the media rights fee for the canceled Fox broadcast.

The lawsuit is not expected to impact the bowl game’s ongoing contract with the conference.

The Holiday Bowl is in the middle of a six-year contract with the Pac-12 and the ACC that runs through the 2025 bowl game.

Bowl officials recently announced that they are in the midst of searching for a new title sponsor after SDCCU opted not to continue as sponsor.