CONCOURSE — The Duke and Indiana University football teams are gearing up to face each other in this year's Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium, an event that the 161st Street Business Improvement District sees as an opportunity to dispel some negative stereotypes that people outside of New York may still have about the South Bronx.
The game will take place on Dec. 26 at 3:30 p.m., and tickets, which range from $45 to $250 a piece, are still available online.
Attendance at the Pinstripe Bowl has increased every year since the game was established in 2010, peaking last year with a sellout crowd of 49,012 that watched Penn State defeat Boston College.
Cary Goodman, executive director of the 161st Street BID, thus described the game as a great opportunity to make sure that people who have never been to The Bronx before get a good impression of the borough.
The BID will greet fans with free mini-footballs printed with the date, the teams and the name of the bowl game, and the Jeter Meter will be reprogrammed to read "Welcome Blue Devils and Hoosiers."
"A very small percentage of them have gotten to The Bronx," Goodman said of the fans, "so it’s a good time for us to put our best face forward and give out these little gifts and wish people a happy holiday."
Youth ambassadors from the BID will also be on hand to direct fans unfamiliar with the neighborhood to amenities like restaurants and ATMs, according to Goodman.
"It’s another, at least, roughly 30,000 people who are coming and probably want to spend some time buying Yankee souvenirs, getting a slice, having something to eat outside of the stadium," he said, characterizing the game as a great tourism opportunity for the borough and local businesses and a chance to show off how much The Bronx has improved in recent years.
However, he did caution visiting football fans that going to Yankee Stadium would not necessarily guarantee them a chance to see a Yankee.
"We can’t have Derek Jeter walking up and down the street all the time," he said.
