Miami has the Orange Bowl, Jacksonville has the Gator Bowl, Orlando has the Citrus Bowl, and now Fort Lauderdale has the Blockbuster Bowl.

Officials at Fort Lauderdale-based Blockbuster Entertainment Corp., the nation’s largest video rental chain, said on Monday that the company has agreed to be the long-term sponsor of the college bowl game to be held on Dec. 28 in Joe Robbie Stadium beginning this year.

Bowl officials will be stretching local geography when they bill Fort Lauderdale as the game site. Joe Robbie Stadium, although only a long punt from the Broward County line, is in an unincorporated stretch of northern Dade County.

The Blockbuster Bowl, originally called the Sunshine Classic, will be one of the richest bowl games, with Blockbuster spending $2.5 million or more a year in the next three years, company officials said.

Blockbuster Chairman H. Wayne Huizenga, who also owns 50 percent of Joe Robbie Stadium, said the bowl will pay at least $1.4 million to each team.

That ranks the Blockbuster Bowl behind only five other bowl games in team payouts. The Rose Bowl gives $6.5 million to each team, followed by the Orange Bowl, $4.1 million; the Cotton Bowl, $3.2 million; the Sugar Bowl, $3.2 million; and the Fiesta Bowl, $2.5 million.

Huizenga said the Blockbuster Bowl might pay more than $1.4 million to each team, depending on the payouts at other bowls.

“We’re committed to paying whatever it takes to be No. 6,” Huizenga said.

Bowl officials said they prefer that a Florida team play in the bowl. With the University of Florida Gators ineligible to play in a bowl this year because of NCAA sanctions, that leaves only the Florida State Seminoles as a likely entry.

Florida State is now 4-1 and expected to be a bowl contender. NCAA rules state that bowl invitations cannot be issued until the third weekend in November.

Richard C. Giannini, founder and president of the Blockbuster Bowl and chief executive of Raycom Management Group, the bowl’s management company, said they won’t try to compete with the Orange Bowl’s tradition of extravagant halftime shows.

“I don’t know if anybody in the country can duplicate what they do at halftime,” Giannini said. “We’re just going to try and concentrate on the football. But we’ll have a nice halftime.”

Giannini, whose Charlotte, N.C., firm manages three other bowls, said 15,000 tickets have been sold to the Blockbuster Bowl. Joe Robbie Stadium seats 74,000 for football.

Blockbuster’s investment in the bowl is only a fraction of its $60 million marketing budget this year, said Steven Berrard, the chain’s chief financial officer.

Berrard said the bowl game will give Blockbuster added visibility and enhance its image.

“We’re an entertainment company,” Berrard said. “This is considered to be entertainment.”

Blockbuster’s sponsorship also benefits Huizenga personally, because of his ownership in Joe Robbie Stadium. When Huizenga bought his interest in the stadium in March he said he would work to bring more events there, including a Major League Baseball team.

Besides his interest in the stadium and the bowl game, Huizenga also owns 15 percent of the Miami Dolphins. Blockbuster also was selected earlier this year as the official video rental chain for Major League Baseball.