Tuesday's SDCCU Holiday Bowl game at Petco Park is officially cancelled despite efforts to find another team for NC State to play after UCLA pulled out hours before kickoff due to COVID-19 protocols.
A statement was released by bowl officials Wednesday morning:
Sadly we are announcing that the 2021 SDCCU Holiday Bowl is cancelled. We worked closely with Boo Corrigan and the fantastic NC State Athletics staff to try and find a replacement team for UCLA, but were unable to do so. We are especially heartbroken for the Student Athletes and, of course, our RedCoat and RedShirt volunteers and staff who spent so much time and effort into planning an incredible festival of events, culminating in a premier bowl game. We are so lucky to have tremendous relationships with our title sponsor - San Diego County Credit Union, FOX Sports, our civic and other sponsor partners and, of course, our fans. We also want to acknowledge and thank the San Diego Padres and the Petco Park staff for taking us in and transforming the ballpark into a world-class football facility. We look forward to coming back in 2022 and putting on one heck of a show!
The UCLA Bruins were set to take on the North Carolina State Wolfpack at Petco Park but the game was canceled "due to COVID-19 protocols within the Bruins’ program," according to a tweet from UCLA. "The UCLA Football team is unable to participate in tonight's San Diego County Credit Union Holiday Bowl due to COVID-19 protocols within the Bruins' program," a statement from UCLA Football read.
The school's Director of Athletics Martin Jarmond said in a separate statement Monday:
"We are extremely grateful to the Holiday Bowl, students fans, sponsors and the people of San Diego for their support this week. We are deeply disappointed for our young men in the football program that worked extremely hard for this opportunity. My heart goes out to them. The health and safety of our students will always be our North Star."
NC State said the team was "heartbroken" it would not be able to compete on Tuesday. "Heartbroken to not be able to compete one more time this season. We were informed a short time ago that our opponent would be unable to play this evening," a tweet from NC State's football team read.
In a statement, the San Diego Padres organization said:
All tickets, suites and parking purchased through www.padres.com or www.ticketmaster.com for the canceled Holiday Bowl game at Petco Park will be automatically refunded. Suite holders will not be charged for any pre-ordered food or beverage. All refunds will be processed automatically with the card used at time of purchase being credited within 30 days. If tickets were purchased through a third-party site (such as StubHub and SeatGeek), guests should contact the site directly for refunds.
(Photo reporting partner 10News)