There are several firsts to this year’s San Diego County Credit Union (SDCCU) Holiday Bowl.
This will be the first year the annual football game will be played at Petco Park. This is the first time the University of Oregon Ducks and University of North Carolina Tar Heels football teams will face each other. And this will be the first time, since 2019, that a Holiday Bowl game will take place: It was canceled for the last two years because of COVID-19.
Whether this is the first time you will be attending this San Diego tradition or your 43rd time, we wanted to help guide you through year’s event. We included nine things you need to know — from the game and the parade to getting tickets to parking and transportation options.
The Holiday Bowl festivities kick off on Dec. 27 with a battle of the marching bands competition and concludes with the KGB Sky Show after the game, with several events in between.
The Teams
This will be the fourth time Oregon will be in the Holiday Bowl and the first for North Carolina.
The No. 15 ranked Ducks arrive at the game with a 9-3 record, finishing fourth in the Pac-12 Conference. At one point in the season, Oregon won eight games in a row and rose to become the No. 6 nationally ranked team.
The Tar Heels also won nine games this season and suffered only their fourth loss of the season in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game against Clemson University to end the regular season. North Carolina started their season by winning eight of their first nine games and at one point in the season were ranked at No. 13 nationally.
If you want to try and run into some of the Tar Heel players and coaches, they are scheduled to be staying at the Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina. The Ducks are slated to be lodging at the Manchester Grand Hyatt.
Oregon and North Carolina will have team field trips before the game, including visits to the San Diego Zoo on Christmas Eve, Sea World on Christmas Day and the USS Abraham Lincoln on Dec. 26. Both teams will also make appearances at Holiday Bowl events such as the Bowl Bash, Holiday Bowl 5K and Holiday Bowl Parade.
The Game
If you are attending the Holiday Bowl, here are a handful of tips. Petco Park will open approximately at 2 p.m., with kickoff scheduled at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 28.
You will want to be in your seat 30 minutes before kickoff for the start of the pregame show. It will feature performances by both the Oregon Ducks and North Carolina Tar Heels marching bands, parachute jumpers and an unveiling of a football field-sized American flag for the singing of the national anthem.
The Dr Pepper / Stater Bros. Halftime Show will be a pageantry with the university’s marching bands, dance and cheer teams and a crowd sing-along.
Between the third and fourth quarters, three fortunate fans will compete against one another on the field to see who can throw the most footballs into a giant Dr Pepper. The winner will get $100,000 for college tuition.
At the end of the game, the offensive and defensive most valuable players will be awarded, along with the 2022 Holiday Bowl trophy to the winning team. And after the awards are given out, a fireworks display will illuminate the downtown San Diego sky.
Also, here are some stadium reminders. Petco Park is a cashless venue, so bring your debit or credit card or digital wallet. The park also prohibits bags except with a single compartment measuring 7 by 10 inches or smaller. And there is no re-entry into the game. For a full list of what you can and cannot bring, you can check the prohibited items list on the Padres website.
Getting Tickets
If you are looking for tickets to the game, there are four official ways to purchase. You can go to Ticketmaster.com, visit the Oregon Ducks ticket page, buy on the Tar Heels website or apply for one of the Petco Park suites on the San Diego Padres website.
Children under 36 inches in height do not need a ticket if they are accompanied by an adult with a valid ticket and can sit on their lap.
Petco Park is a fully digital venue, so you will need to the MLB Ballpark app to access and manage your tickets. The stadium will have a capacity for 41,000 spectators.
Transportation and Parking
If you are not already staying in downtown San Diego, or can walk to Petco Park for the Holiday Bowl game, here are a few options for getting down to the Gaslamp Quarter.
The most cost-effective and perhaps easiest way will be taking public transportation. All three MTS trolley lines will take you to Petco Park. For the Green and Blue lines, you get off at the 12th and Imperial stop and walk two blocks northwest to the main Petco Park entrance. If you are taking the Green Line, you will want to exit at the Gaslamp Quarter station and walk two blocks east to the Tony Gwynn Drive entrance on the Western Metal Building side of Petco Park. Trolley service runs every 15 minutes and every seven and a half minutes on the Blue Line between San Ysidro and downtown.
To ride the trolley, you will need to either the PRONTO app to purchase a ticket or purchase a PRONTO card and add money to the card at any trolley station ticket machine. You can find all the PRONTO details here.
If you plan on driving, here are some parking tips.
There are two official Holiday Bowl parking options available at Petco Park on game day: The first is at Padres Parkade at the corner of Tenth Avenue and K Street, and the second is at Tailgate Park located between K Street and Imperial Avenue, and 12th Avenue and 14th Avenue. Parking is $50 per space and can be purchased on Ticketmaster.
There are also three other parking structures closest to Petco Park that usually charge in person for major events: on Sixth Avenue between K Street and L Street, at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel and the MTS parking structure on Imperial Avenue and 12th Avenue, adjacent to the 12th and Imperial trolley station.
Some streets that surround Petco Park will be closed, so plan accordingly. You can also try to find street parking blocks away from Petco Park, with meters that vary from 15 minutes to four hours, but are free after 6 p.m.
The Parade
One of the first events on game day will be the Port of San Diego Holiday Bowl Parade. It starts at 10 a.m. and will have a new route this year, starting at the south end of the San Diego Convention Center on Harbor Drive — marching north — and finishing at Pacific Highway. The new route is due to a cruise ship being docked on Dec. 28.
The Holiday Bowl Parade — described by organizers as, “America’s Largest Balloon Parade” — is expected to see 100,000 people. The event will feature floats, massive balloons of various fictional characters, marching bands and specialty units. This year’s honorary parade chairmen are retired KGB radio station hosts Dave Rickards and Cookie “Chainsaw” Randolph.
The parade is free to attend. Spectators are encouraged by event organizers to get there an hour before the start of the event, bring a chair and dress for cold weather. If you want to take the trolley, the Convention Center Station on the Green Line is a stop that will leave you where the 2022 Holiday Bowl Parade begins, and the Seaport Village Station will leave you closer to the end of the parade.
If you cannot get down to the parade in person, it will also be streamed live on CBS+.
Holiday Bowl 5K
Right before the Holiday Bowl parade begins, the 27th annual Holiday Bowl 5K will take place at 9:45 a.m. It will start at the corner of Harbor Drive and Park Boulevard and circle back to finish at Ruocco Park. Approximately 1,000 people will participate, according to event organizers.
Battle of the Bands
Who doesn’t love a good old-fashioned battle of the bands competition? The Oregon Ducks and North Carolina Tar Heels marching bands will face off during the Snapdragon Bowl Bash on Dec. 27 from 5 to 8 p.m.
There will also be dance and cheer teams performing, photo booths, interactive games, giveaways, a photo op with the Holiday Bowl trophy and food and drink specials from participating restaurants.
The Bowl Bash will take place in the Gaslamp Quarter and center around Fifth Avenue and Market Street. It is a free public event and open to all ages.
Game Day Tailgate Party
For Holiday Bowl fans looking for a place to get hyped right before the game, you might want to check out the official 2022 SDCCU Holiday Bowl Tailgate Party. It will take place at Venue 808 — across from Social Tap — just steps from Petco Park from 2 to 4 p.m.
The party costs $102 to get in and includes a buffet, local craft beer, wine, nonalcoholic beverages, photo booth activities and more. The event is open to all ages. Tickets for the tailgate party can be purchased on the Holiday Bowl’s website.
Holiday Bowl History
This is the 43rd running of the Holiday Bowl. It first took place on Dec. 22, 1978, when Navy defeated Brigham Young University 23-16. This year, the game will feature a school from the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) for the first time. Holiday Bowl officials announced on Aug. 15, 2021, an agreement to have football teams from the ACC and Pac-12 Conference participate in the bowl from 2020 to 2025. Previously, the Holiday Bowl matched up teams from the Big 12 and Big Ten with a Pac-12 team.
This will also be the first year the Holiday Bowl will be played at Petco Park. Holiday Bowl and Padres officials announced a five-year deal in June 2021. Before, the game was played at Qualcomm Stadium, which has since been torn down.
The Holiday Bowl is organized by the San Diego Bowl Game Association, a nonprofit whose mission is to generate visibility, tourism and economic impact for the San Diego region. The Holiday Bowl is the only San Diego bowl game in town, after the Poinsettia Bowl was canceled by the San Diego Bowl Game Association in 2017 to focus on the Holiday Bowl.
