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Sports Watch

By Bill Kwon

Tuesday, December 26, 2000

Christmas bowl
package a tough sell

HERE'S another Christmas countdown that officials of the Jeep Oahu and Aloha Bowl games have had visions of, dancing in their heads:

Four teams a' bowling.

Three coaches leaving.

Two happy teams winning.

And one so sorry failing.

Boston College joined Georgia -- a 37-14 victor over Virginia in the Oahu Bowl -- as a merry holiday winner by muscling past Arizona State, 31-17, in yesterday's Aloha Bowl.

Unlike Georgia's Jim Donnan, who was also fired at the end of the season, Bruce Snyder bowed out losing his final game after nine seasons as head coach at Arizona State.

The third departing coach in Hawaii's holiday bowl package is Virginia's George Welsh, who retired.

The one so sorry failing?

Another nearly empty 50,000-seat Aloha Stadium. My generous guesstimate was about 8,000, a crowd you'd maybe see at a prep game.

"Sad, yeah?" said Margie Nishimura as she and her husband, Harold, walked to their seats in orange section K.

The Nishimuras have been to all 19 Aloha Bowls and every Pro Bowl since the NFL moved its AFC-NFC all-star game here in 1980.

At first, they could only buy seats in the mauka stands. Now they have a choice of almost any seat in the house. Naturally, they bought seats on the 50-yard line.

Unfortunately for the Aloha Bowl, there aren't too many devoted football fans like the Nishimuras anymore.

But it's really unfair to Hawaii fans to ask them to support bowl games involving teams of no interest to them on Christmas Day.

If anything, it's a day of watching football at home. That's the reason television networks are paying big bucks - getting captive audiences to watch the games at home.

The real irony, of course, is that the Oahu and Aloha Bowl games the folks on the mainland saw live in the comfort of their homes were blacked out here.

For that matter, yesterday's Boston College-Arizona State game will never be seen locally, unless KITV shows it as a re-run. But don't bet on it.

So what we have had the past two days were studio audiences at Aloha Stadium. With the embarrassing sight of tens of thousands of empty seats seen on national television.

It's the matter of accommodating television or the fans. The local bowl officials, including CEO Fritz Rohlfing, can't have it both ways.

BUT one immediate solution to getting more fans in the seats -- if the University of Hawaii isn't bowl eligible -- is revising the ticket scale. For one, cheaper seats in the end zones and the upper levels.

And whether the games are played on back-to-back days again or as part of a Christmas Day doubleheader, fans should have the option to buy tickets to the game they only want to see. Give them a reduced rate for a two-fer, if they want.

After all, going to a football game on Christmas morning or Christmas Eve is a hard enough sell as it is. Especially if UH isn't playing.

Still, the community's got to get more involved in making sure that the Oahu Bowl continues to be on the postseason schedule.

Once a grand experiment as part of a historic college football doubleheader, the Oahu Bowl remains UH's best postseason opportunity, even more so than the higher-profiled Aloha Bowl, which will observe its 20th anniversary in 2001. For that reason alone, it's a keeper.

One more suggestion: Who really needs Michael Buffer saying, "Let's get ready to rrrrrrummmmble!"

That's 10 grand saved right there.