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Pro Bowl attendance Vs. Poor UH Attendance

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  • Pro Bowl attendance Vs. Poor UH Attendance

    I wonder why it is that we as a community will support a bunch of professionals that get paid big bucks to play football, yet not support our own local Division I team (the Warrirors) like other states embrace their respective D-I Schools.

    We have no problem selling out Aloha Stadium for the Pro Bowl... But when it comes to our own Warrior Team... We can barely fill half the stadium at some games?

    These players make more money than most of us... yet we will shell out big money to see them....

    The Warriors on the other hand... some of the players actually pay tuition and walk-on just to play football yet we don't seem to support them.

    If we had 40,000 - 50,000 at every home Warrior game... that would be a major recruiting tool... however, we can barely even get 20,000.

    The sadder thing is... we can never host a superbowl because there is no place here in Hawaii that can hold that many people...
    Last edited by damontucker; February 12, 2006, 05:35 PM. Reason: clarification

  • #2
    Re: Pro Bowl attendance Vs. Poor UH Attendance

    Timing might be an issue here. Maybe it's easier to see a game on a Sunday mid-day instead of a Saturday night. Another factor might be the Pro-Bowl is a once a year type of event. For sure all the die-hard football fans will come to the game. Were as the UH games are spread across the weeks. Some will come to one game, others will come to another game.

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    • #3
      Re: Pro Bowl attendance Vs. Poor UH Attendance

      Also, the estimate I heard was that the 50,000 broke down about 30,000 residents to 20,000 visitors. If that's right, that's likely the same 30,000 who show up for UH games.
      http://www.linkmeister.com/wordpress/

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      • #4
        Re: Pro Bowl attendance Vs. Poor UH Attendance

        Originally posted by Linkmeister
        Also, the estimate I heard was that the 50,000 broke down about 30,000 residents to 20,000 visitors. If that's right, that's likely the same 30,000 who show up for UH games.
        can i get a source on this??? I just find it hard to believe you could seperate between residents and non residents in a numerical way?

        I do think that is a realistic number... I just need the source?

        And of 30,000 residents reported... How many of those received complimentary tickets???

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        • #5
          Re: Pro Bowl attendance Vs. Poor UH Attendance

          It was either KGMB or KHON local news this evening. The sports guy (so it had to be KHON, because Liz Chun does KGMB's sports, and I distinctly remember it being a guy reporting it). I don't know if they have audio of their newscasts on their website, though.

          I suspect the comp number may never be known.
          http://www.linkmeister.com/wordpress/

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          • #6
            Re: Pro Bowl attendance Vs. Poor UH Attendance

            Hawaii has traditionally been fair weather fans when it came to organized sports. Even the Hawaii Islanders Baseball team of decades ago was lacklusture in their ticket sales ever since Hawaii's only professional baseball team moved from the old Honolulu Stadium to Halawa Stadium.

            Ever since that time, Hawaii's sporting attitude never seemed to be the same. Having a stadium in the middle of town (McCully/Moilili) seemed to bring in a lot of residents to football, baseball and even circle track racing!

            Yep when the Termite Palace was torn down, sports it seems kinda slowed down a bit.
            Life is what you make of it...so please read the instructions carefully.

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            • #7
              Re: Pro Bowl attendance Vs. Poor UH Attendance

              There are lots of reasons why attendance at a Pro Bowl far surpasses that at UH home games, and I'd definitely put "local sports fans are lousy" fairly far down that list. After all, despite a lackluster few seasons, significant ticket price hikes, and the whole flap over alcohol sales, thousands of people do turn out for UH games. Not 50,000, sure, but a lot more than I would have guessed.

              Like others have said, more reasonable explanations include the fact that the Pro Bowl is an annual event, a special occasion that's anticipated all year. UH can get near Pro Bowl numbers if it were a "big game," but we haven't had one in a while.

              Also, of course, there is the fact that the Pro Bowl is a nationally promoted and televised sports event. A significant number of people in the stands are from out of state (each player is definitely behind the sales/free giveaway of a big chunk of tickets). And yes, a fair bump in attendance from residents is expected, too. Sad but true, there are heaps of football or NFL fans that aren't college football fans, let alone UH fans.

              For the sake of the "sports economy" in this town (and the people who depend on it), I'm glad the Pro Bowl does pretty well. It has to battle its way from the edge of irrelevancy as it is -- players basically saying, "Hey, it's the money and the trip to Hawaii!" -- but fortunately people still come and watch and have a good time.

              Okay, "fairweather fans" applies, too. (I admit, there are UH season ticket holders in my family, but I can't remember when I last went to a game.) But it's not a failing unique to Hawaii.

              Why does the NFL fill the stadium but not UH? You could ask the same about, say, U2 versus The Crud. Does it neccessarily mean our local talent or fan base sucks? Nah. It's mostly a matter of scale.

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              • #8
                Re: Pro Bowl attendance Vs. Poor UH Attendance

                I have had this discussion more than once, compareing UH to other BCS schools an such. IMHO one of the biggest reasons for the low turn out is that Honolulu is not atypical a college town, if you look at the schools who fill the seats every game they are in an area that the scool is the reason that the town is there (in most cases) that being said UH is just not a RAH RAH type of school. I guess there is just too many other things to do on any given Saturday.

                Too bad to, I have followed college football for a lot of years,(not saying I am an expert) an UH has had and will continue to have one of THE best football programs in the nation, there is a lot more to college football then just the games and again IMHO UH does an outstanding job with thier program. I just wish that they could be embraced by the local people as they should be.

                I have heard it said a few times "Boy I wish Hawaii would get a pro baseball team back I would go see them play" I guess you really don't know what you have until it's gone, I sure hope that doesn't happen with UH Football GO WARRIORS
                Last edited by Pomai44; February 13, 2006, 06:40 AM.
                List of local people living on the mainland

                Never forgotten

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                • #9
                  Re: Pro Bowl attendance Vs. Poor UH Attendance

                  I see UH football as being a victim of geography. Whereas it doesn't take extreme planning for example, for University of Alabama alumni to attend a football game in Tuscaloosa (other than the difficult task of procuring tickets to the game), whether they live in Missouri, Florida, or wherever on the mainland, it does take some major planning if you are a UH grad living on the mainland or even in Hawai'i if you live on an island other than O'ahu to attend a Warrior game.

                  A Bama fan, if they live east of the Mississippi River, can realistically drive to the game, without a huge amount of planning or monetary commitment. I would bet a good portion of the games at Tuscaloosa are attended by not just residents of northern Alabama, but from alumni from all over the Southeast, as well as other points, to some extent, on the mainland.

                  Attending a UH game though, in Honolulu, is not something one does casually, if one is a grad of UH living on the mainland. I see it, at best, as being a once a season type event for such a person. It's probably more like maybe once every two years, with the air travel, lodging, and all of the expenses of travelling to Honolulu factored in.

                  Also, most of the D-1A football programs have much larger population base they can draw fans from within 300 miles of their respective schools, than the population on O'ahu or even in the entire state. UH may have 1.2 million residents in a 300 mile radius of Honolulu; the U. of Alabama might have, for all I know, 25 million residents, with urban centers, such as Atlanta and Nashville, for instance, not that far away from Tuscaloosa. UH just doesn't have the population base available for the casual fans who attend their games to make a real difference.

                  I attend one UH game a year. I'm fortunate the games I attend are the non-conference games played at Aloha Stadium after the WAC schedule games have been played out. It's fortunate for me that these games are played about the time the Honolulu Marathon is being run. If it wasn't for this co-incidence of both these event occuring within the time frame of my usual visit in December, I doubt I'd ever attend a UH football game. I'm unlikely to travel to Honolulu to casually attend a UH football game, and especially so if the games available to me were against teams like New Mexico State or San Jose State.

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                  • #10
                    Re: Pro Bowl attendance Vs. Poor UH Attendance

                    Originally posted by craigwatanabe

                    Having a stadium in the middle of town (McCully/Moilili) seemed to bring in a lot of residents to football, baseball and even circle track racing!
                    Speaking of the old Honolulu Stadium (The Termite Palace), some of you old-timers out there might recognize one or more of these faces of the guys who used to run up and down the bleachers selling peanuts, popcorn, candy, soda pop, la dat...



                    The guy on the far right really brought it all back to me. High School Thanksgiving "Turkey Games" were also a blast to go to.

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                    • #11
                      Re: Pro Bowl attendance Vs. Poor UH Attendance

                      Speaking of Alabama fans, I've read great reviews of this book about them. If you've ever watched college football games between schools in the big conferences, you can probably imagine what a book entitled "Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer : A Road Trip into the Heart of Fan Mania" might describe.
                      http://www.linkmeister.com/wordpress/

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                      • #12
                        Re: Pro Bowl attendance Vs. Poor UH Attendance

                        The upcoming UH football at Bama ought to be wild. I think, in as way, this the final dot on the explanation point proclaiming that UH football really is big-time. UH playing a road game in Tuscaloosa to me is almost as if its their final initiation rite into the big boys' club of collegiate football. When I think of the all the major programs that have gone into Tuscaloosa and played there..I just think it is so exciting that the Warriors are going to be playing in Alabama, in the heart of the Southeastern Conference territory, in the Crimson Tide's house. This is as good to me as UH playing a game at Notre Dame, Ohio State, or Michigan...it doesn't get much bigger than that to me! And to think they will be playing in "The Swamp" of Florida on 2008.

                        I'd love to attend that UH-Bama game. Like I mentioned in my previous post, it is entirely within the realm of possibility for me to go to; on the other hand, I never got to go to the Bama games when they played in Hawai'i. (I couldn't pull the trip off at the time.)

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                        • #13
                          Re: Pro Bowl attendance Vs. Poor UH Attendance

                          Originally posted by Linkmeister
                          It was either KGMB or KHON local news this evening. The sports guy (so it had to be KHON, because Liz Chun does KGMB's sports, and I distinctly remember it being a guy reporting it). I don't know if they have audio of their newscasts on their website, though.
                          Actually, Steve Uyehara stood in for Liz on Sunday night. I suspect it was because Liz seemed to be losing her voice on the early newscast. So it could’ve been KGMB. Was the guy haole or Japanese? Try check Oceanic digital cable’s free “News on demand.” I think they offer the 10pm newscast for KGMB.

                          We can’t be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans.

                          — U.S. President Bill Clinton
                          USA TODAY, page 2A
                          11 March 1993

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                          • #14
                            Re: Pro Bowl attendance Vs. Poor UH Attendance

                            Originally posted by TuNnL
                            Actually, Steve Uyehara stood in for Liz on Sunday night. I suspect it was because Liz seemed to be losing her voice on the early newscast. So it could’ve been KGMB. Was the guy haole or Japanese? Try check Oceanic digital cable’s free “News on demand.” I think they offer the 10pm newscast for KGMB.
                            Steve Uyehara looks hapa to me. Does anybody know for sure?

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                            • #15
                              Re: Pro Bowl attendance Vs. Poor UH Attendance

                              Originally posted by TuNnL
                              Actually, Steve Uyehara stood in for Liz on Sunday night. I suspect it was because Liz seemed to be losing her voice on the early newscast. So it could’ve been KGMB. Was the guy haole or Japanese? Try check Oceanic digital cable’s free “News on demand.” I think they offer the 10pm newscast for KGMB.
                              I should have specified, I guess. I meant I heard "the guy" on the early newscast.
                              http://www.linkmeister.com/wordpress/

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