Seattle Bowl
not recertified
The Seattle Bowl, formerly the Oahu Bowl, has finally joined the Aloha Bowl in the resting place for dead postseason football games.
The game was not recertified for next year "due to financial issues and failure to adhere to administrative requirements," according to a news release yesterday from the NCAA.
Marcia Klompus was the executive director of the game during its three-year run in Hawaii before it moved to Seattle two years ago. Klompus and her husband, Lenny, also ran the Aloha Bowl, which was played in Hawaii on Christmas from 1982 through 2000. No new home was found for the Aloha Bowl after the couple sold the rights to the game.
"I'm devastated," Marcia Klompus said yesterday. "First because Hawaii lost the games, and now this, especially after all the hard work on the Aloha Bowl that got the Oahu Bowl started.
"Thank goodness Hawaii still has a bowl game."
A total of 27 other games, including the ConAgra Foods Hawaii Bowl, were recertified. A new game, the Fort Worth Bowl, was added.
Seattle Bowl executive director Jim Haugh said the NCAA showed favoritism toward ESPN, which now owns three bowls, including the Hawaii Bowl and the Fort Worth Bowl.
"The NCAA is apparently willing to look one way for some people but not for others," he said.
"Obviously, we are very disappointed in the decision," Haugh told The Seattle Times. "I think it really came down to that they had issues with how the game was run last year."
The Hawaii Bowl, which is owned and operated by ESPN Regional Television, reported a profit in its first year.
"Our meetings (with the NCAA committee) went really well," Hawaii Bowl executive director Jim Donovan said. "They told us the surveys of the participating teams were positive and everything else was very positive. We had a 15-minute meeting."
Because of sagging attendance in Hawaii, the Oahu Bowl was moved, renamed the Seattle Bowl and was played in 2001 at Safeco Field. Last year, it wa played at Seahawks Stadium with Wake Forest beating Oregon 38-17.
Operators missed two deadlines for providing a $1.5 million letter of credit last year and or negligent in paying many of their debts.
The game has been run by Aloha Sports Inc., owned by Terry Daw of Hawaii, who has been trying to sell the company to Pro Sports & Entertainment Inc. of Santa Barbara, Calif.
Besides hangups in the sale, Daw's company was sued for $250,000 by the Mountain West Conference, which was under contract to supply its No. 4 team to face the No. 6 team from the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Despite the lawsuit, Daw said Mountain West officials "testified on our behalf" in San Diego.
"Basically, it's just the teams (that haven't been paid)," Daw said. "Most of the debts in Seattle were paid. Maybe there were a few small ones left out there."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.