[ OUR OPINION ]
Bowl game needs community
effort to be successfulA post-season football bowl game will return to Honolulu this year with the Hawaii Warriors one of the combatants if they put together a winning record in the regular season. The Hawaii Bowl on Christmas Day will be a major stimulant for the University of Hawaii football program and winter-season attraction for the tourism industry. The trick play will be keeping it here forever.
THE ISSUE The NCAA has certified the Hawaii Bowl, a post-season football game to debut this Christmas.
That won't be a problem as long as the Warriors are on the field because loyal fans can be expected to fill Aloha Stadium. The challenge will be drawing crowds during UH off-years, when the game will feature also-rans from the Western Athletic Conference and Conference USA.
The Aloha Bowl was a fairly successful draw during its 19 years, mainly because it was free to choose teams with strong followings. Those fans were willing to travel long distances during the holidays even in years when their favorites failed to qualify for the top bowl games. These included universities such as UCLA, Syracuse, Michigan State and Georgia Tech. Hawaii was a participant only once, in 1989.
The new Hawaii Bowl partnership of ESPN, the WAC and Conference USA is a different creature, with guaranteed placement of teams from those two conferences -- Hawaii from the WAC only after a winning season in either of the next two years. How many fans will show up at the stadium for a game between Louisiana Tech or Boise State from the WAC and East Carolina or Memphis from USA?
In 1999, when the Oahu Bowl joined the Aloha Bowl for Christmas doubleheaders, the stadium was packed because UH was among the four teams, climaxing June Jones' miraculous first year as the Warriors' coach. When a dismal record left UH idle at the end of the next season, the turnstiles gathered dust. The Aloha and Oahu bowls thereafter departed for the mainland, with the Oahu landing as the Seattle Bowl and the Aloha disintegrating.
The Hawaii Tourism Authority needs to be brought into the Hawaii Bowl partnership to some degree, perhaps subsidizing local ticket sales and assembling a half-time gala spectacular enough to attract people who don't care who wins the football game. The authority's refusal to come to the aid of the Aloha and Oahu bowls contributed to their demise. That should not happen again.
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