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Minutes after Oakland Raiders quarterback Rich Gannon was named the 2002 Pro Bowl Most Valuable Player, organizers realized they left the trophy at the hotel. League looks to give
Pro Bowl exposureBloomberg News
After a frantic search through Aloha Stadium, they found a four-foot bowling trophy in the building manager's office and presented that to Gannon instead. It didn't go unnoticed.
"They were never like that when I won the MVP," Dan Fouts, a former San Diego Chargers quarterback who shared the award in 1983, said on ABC's broadcast of the NFL's annual all-star game.
The incident was symbolic of the Pro Bowl, one of the few marketing laggards of a league that built its championship game into a near national holiday. It has lower television ratings than the baseball and basketball All-Star games.
While the NFL doesn't expect the event to match the Super Bowl in popularity, it plans to make changes to put it on par with those in other sports.
"Internally and externally we treated this game as an afterthought, but that's going to change," said Jim Steeg, the NFL's director of special events. "This is a make-or-break year."
With two years remaining on its contract to play in Honolulu, the league is considering moving the game to Monday night, which was originally reported in the Star-Bulletin, and the creation of an All-Star weekend with college football's Hula Bowl.
The league also is trying to create "skills" contests similar to the NBA's slam-dunk and 3-point contests and baseball's home run derby. It may move its "Quarterback Challenge" -- currently taped and shown during the summer -- to the Pro Bowl weekend.
Under its current format, it's a television ratings disaster.
It was watched in 4.2 percent of U.S. homes with televisions, an 8.5 percent drop. The NBA All-Star game was seen in 11 percent of homes, and baseball's -- even with a 26 percent drop -- still was watched in 5.1 percent of homes.
In 1995, the Pro Bowl was seen in 12 percent of homes with TVs. It's gone down most every year since.
"The ratings may be down simply because of the way we are presenting the game," said Denver Broncos owner Pat Bowlen. "We're looking to make some significant changes this year to recapture the viewers."
Bowlen, chairman of the league's broadcast committee, said he is negotiating with Walt Disney Co.'s ABC to show the game on Monday night.
"I'm pushing very hard to get this done," he said. "It will be a season finale Monday night game, and we'll have a more captive audience. I think it could make a huge difference."
ABC spokesman Mark Mandel said the network wouldn't comment on the Pro Bowl.
The league started to make changes last year, taking over ticketing, parking and changing fan voting. The league even helped remodel parts of Aloha Stadium and is offering to help replace the artificial turf.
Still, the league isn't addressing what may be the biggest problem for the game -- holding it a week after the Super Bowl, said Rick Burton, director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon.
"It's like Christmas is on Dec. 25 and a small gift arrives on Dec. 27," Burton said. "How excited are you?"
Steeg, the NFL's special events director, said other problems have to be addressed.
"We've used the excuse that it's a week after the Super Bowl and it will never be anything big for far too long," he said.
One option would be to cancel the game altogether and replace it with an award ceremony, though many owners said that is probably out of the question.
"Players and their families really seem to enjoy it, and I think it would come across as a give-back by the players if we canceled it," Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson said.