For Immediate Release Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Meineke Car Care Bowl Reaches Deal
with U.S. Naval Academy for 2006

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Raycom Sports, owner and operator of the Meineke Car Care Bowl, has reached an agreement with the U.S. Naval Academy that makes the Midshipmen available for selection to the 2006 Meineke Car Care Bowl. The deal assures a bowl-eligible Navy or the #3 selection from the Big East Conference against a team from the Atlantic Coast Conference.

The 2006 Meineke Car Care Bowl will take place on Saturday, December 30, at 1:00 p.m. and will be televised nationally on ESPN. The game will be played at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C.

“We are very excited by our new relationship with Navy for this season,” said Bowl Executive Director Will Webb. “Having the opportunity to bring Navy to Charlotte is a great position to be in come selection time. This deal affords the Meineke Car Care Bowl several very attractive possibilities for this year’s game.”

“The recent success of our program both on the field and in the stands has created the exciting opportunity we have before us with the Meineke Car Care Bowl,” said Navy Athletic Director Chet Gladchuk. “The pageantry of Navy football is about a winning team, thousands of fans, embracing a community by the entire Navy family, and an overall institutional commitment second to none. A successful football team opens many doors, and everyone is hopeful in 2006 that we will realize a number of our goals, one clearly being a trip to Charlotte in December.”

The Naval Academy has a national reputation as one of the best traveling teams in the country when it comes to bowl games. In 2003, Navy brought 25,000 fans to the Houston Bowl and nearly half of the student body attended the game. The crowd of 51,068 was a Houston Bowl record and outdrew 12 other bowl games.

In 2004, the Naval Academy brought 18,000 fans to the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco, and ranked as the seventh-most tickets sold among all bowl teams that year, an impressive number when you consider the fact Navy played in a bowl game more than 3,000 miles from Annapolis. The 18,000 tickets were more than the combined totals of the other five schools that had played in the Emerald Bowl previously.

In 2005, Navy sold 20,000 tickets for the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego. With the number of Navy fans that bought tickets directly through the bowl game, Navy easily contributed 30,000-35,000 fans to the game.

The Meineke Car Care Bowl has averaged almost 64,000 fans each year and has sold out two of its four years. It has reached over 6.5 million television households. In 2003, it was named one of the five-best start-ups in sports over the past five years by the Sports Business Journal, behind only the NFL Houston Texans and ESPN the Magazine.

The inaugural game, played on December 28, 2002 before a sold-out stadium, saw Virginia defeat West Virginia, 48-22. On December 27, 2003, Virginia once again claimed victory, this time over Pittsburgh, 23-16. The third year again produced a sellout, as Boston College defeated North Carolina, 37-24, on December 30, 2004. And last year, NC State defeated South Florida, 14-0, on December 31, 2005.

Public tickets will go on sale August 1. Upper Level Seats are priced at $30 and Lower Level Seats are $55. Individual tickets will be available only through TicketMaster. To purchase individual tickets, please visit any TicketMaster outlet in the southeast or online at www.ticketmaster.com. To order from TicketMaster by phone in Charlotte, call . Tickets are also available at the Carolina Panthers Box Office, located at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte.

Club Level seats are only available through ticket and sponsorship packages. To purchase ticket and sponsorship packages, please call the Meineke Car Care Bowl office toll free at or online at meinekecarcarebowl.com.

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