Dollar vs Camellia

[Lowcountry App]

I attended the two Camellia Bowls but wasn’t able to make it to Mobile. I would be interested to hear opinions on the two bowls. Other than the date of the Dollar, which one had the better fan experience?

[iambhooper]

Mobile is the better overall experience, but Montgomery had the better stadium and football facilities... yes, I said that!

Our group all said we would go to Mobile, just to visit!

[DaphneUrquhart]

I have been at all three bowls and am always on the lookout for game day improvements that we might use successfully at KBS. I'll skip the actual facility as the history of its having been built with scrap metal after WWII makes up for some inadequacies in the stadium (e.g. - only handicap accessible seating was in the end zone away from other fans).

I understand that several events prior to the game (parade, mayor's lunch, etc.) were well done.

The game staff were relatively clueless and unable to answer the simplest of questions. Will call was setup completely on the opposite side of the stadium from the alumni tailgate. The passes to get into the alumni tailgate had to be retrieved from will call first. They couldn't figure out how to let folks into the alumni tailgate and kept changing the rules on how we were to get into the game. They even a managed to let several Toledo fans into the A]pp alumni tailgate even though the Toledo fans did not have the requisite purple bands.

All in all, I'd say Dollar General was the least organized football game that I have attended in the years that I've been going to App games. Of course the outcome of the game was absolute perfection!

[AppAlum1]

I agree with the two previous posts. Mobile is a fine city. More fun to party there than Montgomery. The parade was well done & it felt like they did it just for the App fans. The stadium is better in Montgomery, as it was more recently updated & upfitted. And, the DG Bowl's organization appeared lackluster; I looked around twice for a program and never found one.

But, the actual game experience was ... PRICELESS!!!

[AppGrad78]

I thoroughly enjoyed both venues. No complaints about either.

[/\PP ST/\TE GRAD 09]

Could have been in the Jimmy John's Trojan Condom Bowl for all I care. 3-0 baby!

[YesAppCan]

Or the KY Your's and His Bowl

[wncapp78]

I agree with the others. Mobile is in an upward trajectory with many new restaurants and attractions. It is definitely a city you could have a nice vacation, especially if you include the “eastern shore” area around Fairhope. And the Mardi Gras parade was fun.
BUT. The stadium facilities, access, tailgating, game day at fan fest activities were much better at Camellia Bowl in my opinion. And a game on December 23 in Mobile will always be a bad date for most App fans.
I WILL give great kudos to Dollar General for providing a great free VIP experience to veterans and military, but we just stumbled upon it, no advance information provided (that I saw).
And officially the attendance may have been 28k but the butts in seats was closer to 8-10k at best. Based on our band having 250 members at the game, they took most of one section. If I count 8 sections of Apps, that’s about 2000 ASU fans. But we were loud vocal and outnumbered Toledo by 5:1.

[ASUGrad2014]

I have been to all three bowl games and this was the most fun that we have had. Mobile is a great city! Parking was abundant and we had a blast tailgating! The game experience was beyond amazing! We sat one section over from the band and were close to the field. There might not have been as many fans in Mobile compared to Montgomery, but the ones who made the trip were loud and rowdy!

Would not hesitate to go back to Mobile for a bowl game.

[HighlandsApp]

We had a great time in Alabama, but I turned it into a mini beach vacation an hour southeast in Gulf Shores. There are beautiful beaches in Alabama and we were very fortunate to have warm weather. The powder white sand and three hundred yards of clean beaches are fantastic. The kids all swam in the gulf.

The parking was easy and the beer was cheap. The podium and ceremony was high schoolish. The video scoreboard operator either didn’t know how to run it or was a middle school kids. The projector screen for a video board held up by a boom truck was pretty sad too. The stadium experience In Montgomery is much better and at least felt like a college football event. The city and beach however make the overall location in Mobile better.

Camellia Bowl = visit for the day.
Mobile Bowl = make a nice 3 to 4 day mini vacation.

[App74]

Major negative : The date
Major positive : The city of Mobile and surrounding area
Icing on the cake : 34-0

We met some great locals especially MobileBama who became both our guide and friend. He left a welcome package for us at the hotel, met up with us at Crockmiers, made sure we were at the right place at the right time to watch the parade and even joined us at our tailgate. We met another couple at Crockmiers that, by chance, ended up sitting with us during the game. They were highly impressed with the energy of the App fans to the point of calling their friends and telling them they were "sitting in the middle of these wild App State fans and having a blast."

Montgomery as a city seemed more inviting, perhaps more personal because it is smaller and Mobile has so much more to do and see. The "official" bar, Crockmiers, had a great setup and location especially with the balcony but having two levels plus the balcony seemed to separate us a bit versus the Avatar in Montgomery which was on one level. However, I still had a great time at Crockmiers visiting there three separate times.

The bowl organization definitely goes to the Camellia where we could pre-purchase parking for tailgating. We went early and blindly into this stadium but got lucky when we spotted an AMB tent after entering on the Toledo side. We got parked, lifted flags and App Nation began to congregate. That area of parking became Kidd Brewer-Gulf Coast. An added thrill was the team buses drove through that lot so we were able to show our support.

Both stadiums are old but each has a good view of the field. I can't comment on concessions because I never left my seat.

All said, both Montgomery and Mobile were great trips for us. We would go to either location again though the date in Mobile is a complication. It just worked out for us this year. I'm glad we went. It was a blast!