Is the Hula Bowl important?

[bueller555]

I can't complain since it's been years since I've attended the Hula Bowl, but it appears that the game is on life support right now. This is from the AP:

"Once the jewel of college all-star games, with alumni including Dan Marino, Tony Dorsett, Mike Ditka and Fran Trakenton, the Hula Bowl this year appeared to be in trouble.

There were only a couple thousand fans in 50,000-seat Aloha Stadium. Some players complained about overcrowded hotel rooms. In the press box, there was no statistics crew, let alone a bowl representative.

It also was the first time in years the game was not televised by ESPN."

Is the Hula Bowl no longer relevant? I honestly didn't even know that it was being held today.

[Paul Ogata]

I caught it on the VS network today. Good to see Rivers, Hawthorne, Lafaele and the rest of the Warriors. Newberry got another pick in the game! And one of the announcers pronounced Lafaele like "Rafael." Ugh.

Noticed the ghost town that was the Aloha Stadium stands, and it made me cringe. How could the organizers not blow out the tickets for 5 or 10 bucks? At least give them away to high school teams and fill up those seats.

Commercials for missionaries, anti-abortion ads, CleanHotels.com spots. Seemed a bit weird for a slate of commercials during a football game. Then they interviewed the Hula Bowl CEO at halftime and I guess it's a Christian outfit these days.

[na alii]

Hula Bowl is no longer the showcase for college all-stars as it once was and now it's the Senior Bowl that's the showcase.

[Random]

I think the Senior Bowl is stealing the spotlight. No offense to Colt, though I personally would rather see him in the Hula Bowl.

[Paul Ogata]

No doubt the Senior Bowl has a lot more going for it. It's held smack dab in the middle of football country, in Mobile, Alabama. Sell-out crowds every year. Plus, NFL coaching staffs coach the Senior Bowl teams! And they bring in hundreds of NFL scouts, coaches, and G.M.'s to look at the players.

Hula Bowl has to do something other than say, "Hey we play the game in Hawaii!" They've got to do something to make it attractive for players, the NFL and the fans to jump aboard. What is it they should do? I don't know, but probably the opposite of their current plan is a good way to go.

On the bright side, good showing by the Warrior seniors!

[Frankie's Market]

Hula Bowl has to do something other than say, "Hey we play the game in Hawaii!" They've got to do something to make it attractive for players, the NFL and the fans to jump aboard. What is it they should do? I don't know, but probably the opposite of their current plan is a good way to go.

Well, if anyone can come up with a solid idea on how to turn the fortunes of the Hula Bowl around, then honestly, that person would be a sports marketing genius.

Fan interest in the Hula Bowl started declining the moment that other postseason football extravaganzas set up tent in Honolulu. The last time the Hula Bowl attracted a 45,000+ crowd was in 1979. The year after that, the first Pro Bowl was staged here. Then the Aloha Bowl was established a couple of years later. The attendance in the Hula Bowl steadily shrank as it could no longer compete for the fans' sports dollar against those other games.

What can be done to rehabilitate the Hula Bowl? A better question might be, what hasn't been done over the last 25 years? One year, the east-west format was altered in favor of a game between a team of college/pro players with Hawaii ties (called Hawaii Ponoi) versus an all-star squad of college seniors. And a few years later, of course, the game was moved to Maui until coming back here in 2006. None of these changes have stemmed the unmistakable trend that the Hula Bowl is slowly dying.

If there's any consolation here, it should be noted that other college all-star football games (with the prime exception of the Senior Bowl) has also had a rough going of it over the last couple of decades. The Blue-Gray all-star game is now defunct, while the East-West Shrine game has been hopping around from city to city after long being a fixture in the Bay Area.