Fenway Bowl Tickets

What the Fenway Bowl is and when it is played

The Fenway Bowl is a college football bowl game played each December at Fenway Park, the home of the Boston Red Sox and the oldest active ballpark in Major League Baseball. The 2026 game, the Wasabi Fenway Bowl, is scheduled for Saturday, December 26, 2026, at 2 p.m. Eastern on ESPN. ESPN Events and Fenway Sports Management run the game, and Wasabi Technologies has been the title sponsor since 2021.

The bowl's tie-ins are with the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and the American Athletic Conference (the American). Recent games show how that plays out: Boston College against SMU in 2023, UConn against North Carolina in 2024, and Army against UConn in 2025. Selections change with conference standings and other bowl commitments, so wait for the early-December announcement before assuming a matchup.

How Fenway Park sets up for football

Fenway Park was built for baseball in 1912, and fitting a 100-yard field inside it takes work. After the baseball season ends, the Red Sox grounds crew removes the pitcher's mound, lays filter fabric over the infield, grades the warning track and sods the whole surface. The result is a real football field with very little room to spare: players have described tight dimensions behind each end zone.

The most unusual detail is the sideline. For the 2024 game, both teams shared the same sideline, split at the 50-yard line, in front of the Green Monster (the 37-foot left-field wall) and facing home plate. Players called the substitutions closer to hockey-style line changes than a normal football game. The layout can be adjusted from year to year, so check the seating chart on your listing for that season's field placement.

Where to sit at the Fenway Bowl

With both benches against the Green Monster, the seats around home plate and along the infield look straight across the field toward the teams, which makes them the natural equivalent of midfield seats in a stadium. Seat choice at Fenway comes with a few ballpark-specific trade-offs:

• Dugout, Field and Loge Box seats near home plate: the lower seating closest to the field, with the most direct view across to both benches. The best overall choice.
• Grandstand seats: the older wooden seats under the upper deck, where support poles block views from some rows, most often near the ends of rows. Seats toward the middle of a row are safer, and the roof overhead cuts wind and snow.
• Pavilion level: the upper seats above the infield give a full view of formations, an advantage for football that ground-level baseball seats lack.
• Outfield and bleacher seats: these sit behind or beside an end zone and face the field at odd angles, since the ballpark was laid out around a diamond.

Fenway seats about 37,000 for baseball, and bowl crowds have ranged from 15,000 in 2022 to 27,900 in 2024, so the full ballpark is rarely in use. Fans of each school tend to fill the sections nearest their team's portion of the shared sideline.

Dressing for a late-December game in Boston

The Fenway Bowl is an open-air game in Boston the day after Christmas. Recent games have been played between December 17 and December 28, and a 2 p.m. kickoff in 2026 means the second half finishes as daylight fades and temperatures drop.

• Layer up: plan for winter conditions, with a warm hat, gloves and a waterproof outer layer, and assume it will feel colder by the fourth quarter.
• Bring something to sit on: a cushion helps on cold seats, if the venue's policy for the game allows it.
• Consider covered seats: Grandstand seats under the upper deck stay drier in snow or rain, at the cost of possible pole obstructions.

Getting to Fenway Park and entry rules

Parking around Fenway is limited, so transit is the practical choice. The MBTA Green Line stops at Kenmore station (B, C and D branches) and Fenway station (D branch), both a short walk from the ballpark, and Lansdowne station on the Framingham/Worcester commuter rail line sits right beside it. Check the MBTA's holiday-weekend schedule before you go, since December 26 service may differ from a regular Saturday.

During the baseball season the Red Sox allow single-compartment bags up to 12 by 12 by 6 inches and prohibit backpacks, and fans pass through metal detectors. The bowl may set its own rules, so check the current policy for the game before you go on the Red Sox ballpark page and the bowl's announcements.

History, results and the road to the first kickoff

The Fenway Bowl was announced in September 2019 and was supposed to debut in the 2020–21 season, but it was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The rescheduled game, set for December 29, 2021, was canceled three days before kickoff when Virginia's team had COVID-19 issues. The first Fenway Bowl was finally played on December 17, 2022.

• 2022: Louisville 24, Cincinnati 7, before 15,000.
• 2023: Boston College 23, SMU 14, before 16,238.
• 2024: UConn 27, North Carolina 14, before 27,900, the bowl's largest crowd.
• 2025: Army 41, UConn 16, before 22,461.

The pattern is clear: New England teams draw. Boston College and UConn, schools within driving distance, figured in the three largest crowds, and a matchup with a regional school is the biggest driver of demand. College football at Fenway also has deeper roots: the NFL's Boston Redskins and the AFL's Boston Patriots both played home games there, and Boston College hosted Notre Dame at the ballpark in 2015. Every GoodSeats order is backed by a 100% guarantee.

Sources

• Wikipedia – Fenway Bowl
• ESPN Press Room – ESPN Events 2026–27 bowl schedule
• Wikipedia – 2026–27 NCAA football bowl games
• Tar Heel Tribune – Heels excited to play at Fenway Park
• NESN – How Fenway Park shifts a baseball diamond to a football gridiron
• Wikipedia – Fenway Park
• Red Sox – Fenway Park ballpark information