Hula Bowl irons out
details of move

Hula Bowl president Mark Salmans said he's "probably halfway there" in covering the details needed to move the college football all-star game back to Oahu. He could be further along after a meeting tomorrow with Aloha Stadium officials.

The biggest need is securing a date and location. Salmans wants the 60th Hula Bowl to be played at Aloha Stadium on Jan. 21 of next year. He has had preliminary meetings with a representative from the mayor's office and other officials on Oahu. Salmans also toured the stadium last month.

Speaking during a phone interview from Kansas yesterday, Salmans said he is confident the game can succeed at the venue where it previously failed, forcing a move to Maui eight years ago.

"We've got to build a core of people who go to it every year," said Salmans, who is hoping for a crowd between 30,000 and 35,000. "Is there a chance we'll fail? I guess. But we're bringing it back to where it originally was and our hopes are it will succeed. I know we don't have the draw of the professionals (the Pro Bowl, in February). Our goal is to create a family atmosphere where people can see college kids who are future pros. Players who wouldn't get seen."

The Hula Bowl had run its course on Maui, too, with declining attendance and increasing bills.

"It was a business decision. Nothing the people on Maui did or didn't do to us," said Salmans, who heads the group that bought the game a few weeks before the 2004 event.

After the game lost $400,000 in 2003 and 2004, last January's event was "close enough you could call it break-even," Salmans said. "If it was as bad as the last two years, we wouldn't be talking about it."

Expenditures for the 2005 game came out to around $600,000, he said, including tabs of $125,000 for airline tickets, $40,000 for hotel rooms and $17,000 for ground transportation. Those amounts can be considerably lower with the game on Oahu, Salmans said.

He said the owners briefly considered moving the event to the mainland.

"There wasn't a real solid reason last year to take it to San Diego, which was on a laundry list of cities we thought about," Salmans said. "We sat back, looked at the options, pros on both sides (of Maui and Oahu). We felt like to operate (on Oahu) would not be such a struggle. It's cheaper to fly into Oahu than Maui. It makes sense to try it there. A couple of potential sponsors said they need the exposure of one million people on Oahu."

Salmans said he is having "ongoing discussions" with at least two possible title sponsors. Credit Unions of America remains a presenting sponsor, providing $250,000 per year.

He said there's still a place for the Hula Bowl, and that place is Honolulu in 2006.

"It's 3 hours of exposure for the islands during the dead of winter," Salmans said. "I don't want to throw anything out there negative. We want with every fiber in our bodies for this to be successful in Honolulu. Aloha Stadium is a beautiful stadium, and it's set up for a game of this nature, where you can put a Division I college game and feel good about it. Hopefully we're a little bit ahead of the curve (on securing the date)."