Philly to host 6 of next 9 Army-Navy tilts

Philadelphia will be home to six of the next nine Army-Navy Games after the city yesterday was awarded the game in 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2017.

All will be played at Lincoln Financial Field. The 2009 game already had been scheduled for Dec. 12 at the Linc.

FedEx Field, in Landover, Md., will host the 2011 game, and the 2014 and 2016 games will be played at M & T Bank Stadium, in Baltimore.

Future games, beginning this season, will be played on the second Saturday in December. That moves Army-Navy from the traditional first Saturday of that month, which now generally serves as the date for conference championship games before the final Bowl Championship Series standings are announced.

CBS will continue to televise the game through 2018.

Philadelphia has hosted 81 of the 109 games played in the rivalry since it began in 1890, including 67 of the last 77.

The announcement made yesterday comes at the end of a nine-month bidding process.

Last August, the academies distributed a formal proposal request for cities to bid on future games. Official bids were submitted in the fall, with finalist cities hosting site visits in early 2009. Negotiations have been ongoing since.

"This bid was a collaboration between all of our great partners from the city, state, Eagles and our host committee," said Larry Needle, executive director of the Philadelphia Sports Congress. "Army-Navy is truly Philadelphia's 'Bowl Game,' and will remain that way for years to come."

According to the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau, the game and surrounding events generate $35 million in total economic impact and more than 17,000 hotel-room nights for the region each year. *