The 47th Holiday Bowl: A 2 p.m. Monday Kickoff and Why You Should Take the Trolley

Overview

San Diego's oldest big-ticket sporting event turns 47 this year, and it has quietly moved twice in two seasons.

The 47th Annual Holiday Bowl kicks off at 2:00 p.m. on Monday, December 28, 2026 at Snapdragon Stadium. If that feels off from what you remember, it should — last year's game was the first ever played in January, on January 2 at 5 p.m. This one is back in December, back on a weekday afternoon, and two days after Christmas.

Here's the thing worth sorting out before you plan around it, because it changes the whole shape of the day.

This is a 2 p.m. Monday kickoff, not a prime-time weekend game. You'll be heading into Mission Valley in the middle of a weekday during the strangest week of the year — the dead zone between Christmas and New Year's, when half the county is off work and the other half is driving somewhere. It's a day trip, not a night out, and it ends in daylight.

Which leads to the single most useful piece of advice on this page: take the Trolley.

• MTS's Green Line stops at Stadium Station, a short walk from the gates. Not a shuttle ride — a walk.
• Service runs every 15 minutes or better before and after games.
• $5 on a PRONTO card covers two one-way fares — your entire round trip.
• There are five free Park & Ride lots on the Green Line, including Old Town (412 spaces, 15 minutes out) and Grossmont Transit Center (220 spaces, 17 minutes).

Meanwhile Snapdragon hasn't published a parking price for this game, the lots are cashless, and each parking pass is tied to a specific entry gate — a Yellow Lot pass can't come in through an Orange Lot entrance. For a holiday-week afternoon, the Trolley is not the budget option. It's the better option.

What You Need to Know

• Event: 47th Annual Holiday Bowl
• When: Monday, December 28, 2026 · 2:00 p.m. PT kickoff
• Where: Snapdragon Stadium, 2101 Stadium Way, San Diego, CA 92108
• Teams: Not yet announced. The matchup pairs the ACC pool against the former Pac-12 pool
• Tickets: On sale now via Ticketmaster. No prices published — see below.
• TV: The CW
• Pregame show: begins 30 minutes before kickoff
• Kids: Children 2 and under are free on a ticket holder's lap. Age 3 and up needs a ticket.
• Re-entry: Not permitted. Once you're in, you're in.

Getting There

By Trolley — the recommended route

• Green Line to Stadium Station. Direct service from Santee, El Cajon, La Mesa, SDSU, Mission Valley, Old Town and Downtown.
• Fares run on PRONTO — download the app or buy at a station machine. Load at least $5 per adult; that covers two one-way trips. A physical PRONTO card costs $2 extra. Contactless tap-to-pay works too (not American Express), one rider per card.
• Tap before you board and tap again at Stadium Station on the way out. Each rider needs their own card or app.
• Transfers: Blue Line at Old Town, Orange Line at Grossmont, Rapid 215 at SDSU.
• Free Park & Ride on the Green Line: Old Town Transit Center (412 spaces, 15 min), El Cajon Transit Center (469, 23 min), Amaya Drive (236, 19 min), Grossmont Transit Center (220, 17 min), Morena/Linda Vista (199, 13 min).
• Riders 18 and under ride free with a Youth PRONTO card.

By car

• Buy your parking pass in advance. Drive-up parking "may be available but limited and may cost more than pre-paid."
• The lots are cashless — credit card only at the entrances.
• Your pass dictates your gate. Thrive Park/Yellow Lots enter at Gate 5 (Friars Road at River Park Road); Green Lot at Gate 1 (Mission Village Drive); Purple Lot at Gate 1 or 2; Orange Lot at Gate 1, 2 or 3. General "Event Parking" permits are valid at the Orange or Yellow lots only.
• The Green Lot is the primary accessible-parking location, directly north of the stadium.
• Overflow: SDSU campus structures P3 and P4, $3 per hour via PaybyPhone (location code 28503 for P3, 28504 for P4) — and that does not include trolley fare.
• Don't try Fenton Marketplace or the surrounding neighborhoods. Stadium event parking is explicitly not allowed there.

By rideshare

• Drop-off and pick-up is on Mission Village Drive, just north of Jacaranda Street, inside Gate 1. Same spot for taxis and shuttles.

Good to Know Before You Go

• It's a clear bag stadium. One bag per person: clear plastic or vinyl no larger than 12" × 6" × 12", or a one-gallon freezer bag, or a small purse no bigger than 4.5" × 6.5". Backpacks, coolers, briefcases and regular purses are out. Bag-check lockers can be bought outside the stadium on the southeast corner, on Innovation Parkway.
• The whole venue is cashless. Credit, debit or gift card only. Reverse ATMs are at the southeast and northeast entries if you've only got cash.
• Leave these at home: umbrellas, folding chairs, noisemakers, selfie sticks, cameras with detachable lenses, glow sticks, outside food and drink, and costume masks. Sealed unfrozen water bottles and empty refillable bottles up to 32 oz are fine, as are signs up to 24" × 36" without sticks.
• No smoking or vaping anywhere on the property — that's SDSU campus policy, not just a stadium rule.
• Five public entrances: the Premium Lobby (west), Northwest Gate, Kaiser Permanente Gate (northeast), Quidel Gate (east) and the Southeast Gate. The box office sits next to the Southeast Gate off Victory Drive.
• Tailgating is a question mark for this game. Snapdragon permits it "for select events" and hasn't said whether this is one. If it is: park directly behind your own vehicle, propane or natural gas grills only (no charcoal), pop-up tents only, no kegs, no glass, no amplified sound, and alcohol stops 30 minutes after the scheduled start.
• Ticket questions by phone: Phil Snyder at (619) 283-5808 ext. 302, weekdays 8:30 a.m.–5 p.m.
• Tickets are digital only and live in the Snapdragon Stadium app for scanning at the gate. Sort that out before you're standing at the turnstile.

The Week Around the Game

The Holiday Bowl has always been more than a football game, though the surrounding schedule for this year hasn't been published yet.

• The Port of San Diego Holiday Bowl Parade — billed as America's Largest Balloon Parade, down the bayside streets downtown, with more balloons than any other parade in the country and over 100,000 street-side spectators. Street-side viewing is free; grandstand tickets go on sale once the date is announced. Date: still TBD.
• The Holiday Bowl 5K Run/Walk — along the harbor front, past the parade crowd, with a finisher medal for everyone. No date or entry fee published yet.
• The Band Bash, hosted by SeaWorld San Diego — the competing schools' marching bands and cheer squads, the night before the game. No 2026 date announced.

All three are worth watching for. Check back closer to December, because none of them have dates yet.

Why It's Worth the Trip

Forty-seven years in, this is one of the genuinely durable things about San Diego in December. The numbers the organizers publish make the case better than any pitch:

• Since 1978, the Holiday Bowl has generated more than 900,000 hotel room nights and $1 billion in economic benefit for the region.
• 242 Holiday Bowl and Poinsettia Bowl alums are currently on NFL rosters.
• 23 Holiday Bowl games were not decided until the final two minutes, and 19 were decided by seven points or less.
• Two Heisman Trophy winners have played in it. BYU alone has appeared 11 times.
• Largest attendance in Holiday Bowl history: 65,416.

That's a bowl game with a real habit of being close. Half of them have come down to the wire.

If you're making a day of it in Mission Valley, you're ten minutes from most of the county. For more of what's on this season, browse our full event calendar, and if Mission Valley is somewhere you've wondered about beyond a game day, our Mission Valley neighborhood guide covers it.