Fiesta Bowl Announces New Naming Sponsorship with Vrbo

The bowl will be a College Football Playoff semifinal in December 2022.

The Fiesta Bowl announced a new title sponsor on Monday. PlayStation is out, Vrbo is in, as part of a multi-year deal that will put the online property rental corporation's name on College Football Playoff games twice.

The Vrbo Fiesta Bowl will be a playoff semifinal this year, played on Dec. 31 in Glendale, Ariz. The other semi on the same day is the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. The CFP championship game will be played in Los Angeles Jan. 9.

"We put on a mega-event every year," said Fiesta Bowl chief marketing officer Jose Moreno. "This is even a bigger mega-event, with the playoff. We are going to be that gateway to go on to the national championship in Los Angeles."

The new Vrbo Fiesta Bowl logo
The new Vrbo Fiesta Bowl logo / Courtesy of the Fiesta Bowl

After PlayStation ended its agreement with the Fiesta Bowl, Vrbo was quick to step up as the new title sponsor. Sewing up the deal in July "allows us to have a creative runway" to promote the game and Vrbo, Moreno said. "We were over-the-moon excited."

“There’s nothing like spending an amazing weekend away with family or old college friends in a Vrbo and getting the whole place to yourselves,” said Jon Gieselman, president of Expedia Brands, which owns Vrbo. “Partnering with the Fiesta Bowl is a perfect fit for Vrbo because Arizona is one of our most popular vacation destinations. We look forward to seeing fans from all over the U.S. enjoy being together in some of the finest vacation homes in the country.”

Given the popularity of Arizona as a winter destination, putting Vrbo’s name on a bowl game in the state made sense. Indeed, the partnership was announced Monday from a nine-bedroom, six-bath luxury Vrbo property in Scottsdale. 

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Pat Forde
PAT FORDE

Pat Forde is a senior writer for Sports Illustrated who covers college football and college basketball as well as the Olympics and horse racing. He cohosts the College Football Enquirer podcast and is a football analyst on the Big Ten Network. He previously worked for Yahoo Sports, ESPN and The (Louisville) Courier-Journal. Forde has won 28 Associated Press Sports Editors writing contest awards, has been published three times in the Best American Sports Writing book series, and was nominated for the 1990 Pulitzer Prize. A past president of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association and member of the Football Writers Association of America, he lives in Louisville with his wife. They have three children, all of whom were collegiate swimmers.