College football's championship still is more than a week away, but pregame festivities will kick off early next week at the Scottsdale Waterfront.
The Bud Light Fiesta runs from Monday to Jan. 9 at the Waterfront southwest of Scottsdale and Camelback roads. It will include live ESPN broadcasts, bands, tailgate-worthy food and beverages and pep rallies for the University of Oregon and Auburn University, the BCS National Championship opponents.
ESPN will telecast from the SouthBridge Plaza near the Marshall Way bridge at 1 p.m. Monday through Friday and air its "College GameDay" show at 5 p.m. Monday and Tuesday prior to the Orange Bowl and Sugar Bowl broadcasts, respectively.
"GameDay" with Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso and Desmond Howard attracts thousands of rowdy football fans on the nation's campuses every football Saturday in the fall.
"We can't replicate that, but we can create a community festival with several hundred people behind the GameDay set," said Brent DeRaad, Scottsdale Convention and Visitors Bureau executive vice president.
The tourism bureau organized the downtown community festival for residents and visiting football fans to create a lively backdrop for the ESPN broadcasts. The championship game will be at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 10 at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale.
City leaders are hoping the ESPN broadcasts position Scottsdale as the place to be for visiting BCS game fans.
Scottsdale contributed $100,000 for the Fiesta, which will be run by SportsOne, an Oregon event operator, and Scottsdale-based M Culinary Concepts, operated by chef Michael DeMaria.
The tailgate food items will be sold for $2 each.
Javier Colon and the band Tonic will perform starting at 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
The hourlong team pep rallies will be at 2 p.m. Jan. 9 for the Auburn Tigers and 5 p.m. for the Oregon Ducks.
The festivities move to Glendale on Jan. 10.
Scottsdale Waterfront, which had just been completed, hosted ESPN broadcasts during Super Bowl week in 2008, but there were few fans on the plaza.
Fiesta organizers have installed grass and an irrigation system on a 3-acre site south of the Nordstrom garage for the event. The lawn could be used for future Waterfront events.
Scottsdale and the tourism bureau are in the fifth year of a 20-year agreement with the Fiesta Bowl to provide lodging for the bowl teams and alumni groups.
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