SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) — After a 2007 deficit of $377,000, the Independence Bowl is expected to be in the black for 2008 when all the accounting is done.Still, it’s currently unclear how much money the Shreveport-based bowl made for 2008 — or when the city of Shreveport will get back the nearly $500,000 it advanced to bowl organizers to bail out the 2007 bowl.Independence Bowl Foundation officials said they still plan to repay the money.And they said they are courting potential title sponsors who would make 2009’s finances even better.Mayor Cedric Glover said the city still expects to get its money back. And, although the mayor’s office values the bowl, another bailout is unlikely. “That’s not a scenario that I see us entertaining at this point,” Glover said recently.Bowl foundation staffers were wrapping up paperwork, so specific figures for March 2008-February 2009, the end of the foundation’s fiscal year, were not yet available.Payouts to the teams participating in the 2008 bowl — a 17-10 victory for Louisiana Tech over Northern Illinois — were lower than in 2007. Tech will get about $400,000; Northern Illinois about $330,000.For the 2007 game, Alabama and Colorado each got $1.2 million. The bowl’s primary contract goes to the Big 12 and Southeastern conferences, hence the higher payouts. Their teams’ 2008 play earned them postseason spots that offered more money, so the Independence Bowl worked with other conferences.The bowl’s last title sponsor, energy company PetroSun, signed what was to have been a three-year, $2.45 million agreement with the I-bowl that started in 2006. The Independence Bowl Foundation later sued PetroSun, saying the company was in default.Last October, a Caddo Parish judge said the former sponsor owed the bowl almost $1.3 million.The company has paid $700,000.——Contact The Daily Reveille news staff at [email protected]