"Two of the last four years we've had national championship games, which no place else can say. And one of the years we didn't have a championship game, we had Kansas State and that was the biggest game in school history, so they brought 4 billion people," he said.
This year's game is taking on a "been there, done that" aura for other reasons, as well. The teams faced each other in the Orange Bowl following the 1997 season, plus Nebraska played for the national title against Florida in the Fiesta Bowl following the 1995 season. No matter the reason, reservations at many hotels are just as stagnant as they were last week and every week since the match-up was announced Dec. 5. Only a handful of football fans have booked rooms at the Chaparral Suites in Scottsdale. "This is the first year we haven't had a Fiesta Bowl group. I have a few scattered rooms for it, but no organized group," said general manager Tom Silverman. In contrast, alumni groups from both Tennessee and Nebraska have booked a combined 250 rooms at the Doubletree Paradise Valley Resort in Scottsdale, said general manager Don Bomer. He feels fortunate because he knows other hotels and resorts have not seen the demand created by past games. "There are a lot of contributing factors, including Y2K obviously. I think it has a lot of people buffaloed. Hopefully, it will be a big fizz for nothing," he said.
