Poinsettia Bowl

 The Poinsettia Bowl-Less than a day after much Qualcomm Stadium was submerged under flood waters, the field is dry and the parking lot is ready to receive thousands of football fans for the Poinsettia Bowl.

Wednesday, much of the playing field was less than 2 feet of water and more than half of the huge stadium parking lot was submerged. At about 3:30 p.m., Poinsettia Bowl Exec. Director Bruce Binkowski met with city officials and stadium staff to plan how to get the venue ready for the bowl game between Navy and the SDSU Aztecs.

"We knew we had a lot of water on the stadium to get out, and a lot of great people put their heads together," Binkowski said.

An outside company brought in a giant pump which worked through the night to siphon about 1.5 million gallons of water off the playing field, Binkowski said. Meanwhile, the San Diego River receded, and crews used heavy equipment to remove mud and debris from the parking lot.

The playing field was protected by a tarp during the rainstorms. Crew uncovered it at about 4 a.m., and by mid-morning it was dry enough to paint the game logo on the turf, Binkowski said.

"The fact that it made this field playable is a tribute to all the people who work here," he said.

Officials haven't added up to cost of cleaning up from the flooding yet, but taxpayers won't be footing the bill, Binkowski promised.

Most of the parking spaces in the stadium's gigantic lot will be usable, but officials are still recommending that the 51,000 fans that have tickets for the game use public transportation to get to the stadium.

"Get to the game early. Use the trolley," Binkowski said. "All the pageantry begins at 4:30 and kickoff is at 5:06 p.m. We're going to have a great night of college football."

The Metropolitan Transit Service added trolleys for the Green Line that goes to the stadium, said Judy Leitner of the Metropolitan Transit System.

The parking lot is scheduled to open at 11 a.m. Off-site parking is available, for a fee, at San Diego State University, the Mission City Corporate Center on Northside Drive, the Marriott Mission Valley on Rio San Diego Drive, and the Town and County Hotel on Hotel Circle North.

All but the SDSU site are in Mission Valley so are potentially affected by high water.

Ticket sales will set a record for the Poinsettia Bowl, which has been played once a year while 2005. The previous largest crowd was 39,129, when Navy played Utah in 2007.