By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer
Even if the 2001 O‘ahu Bowl is played on the West Coast, the University of Hawai‘i football team would receive an automatic invitation to play in this year’s game if it meets the minimum NCAA bowl requirements.
Aloha Sports Inc., which owns the Aloha Bowl and O‘ahu Bowl, is negotiating with two undisclosed West Coast groups to move this year’s O‘ahu Bowl from Hawai‘i, said Fritz Rohlfing, the doubleheader’s chief executive officer.
Rohlfing cited declining ticket sales and other concerns — the doubleheader is usually played on Christmas Day — for the decision to "enter serious discussions" with interested buyers. He declined to estimate the odds of the game moving, but said, "the likelihood is very high."
UH played in the O‘ahu Bowl in 1999, the second year in the game’s three-year history. (There have been 19 Aloha Bowls.)
The Aloha Bowl has agreements with the Pac-10 and Big East conferences. The O‘ahu Bowl matches teams from the Pac-10 and the Atlantic Coast conferences. But there is a provision in the contract that allows the O‘ahu Bowl to substitute UH for an ACC team if the Warriors meet the "bowl-worthy" requirement of a winning record and at least six NCAA Division I-A victories.
The provision also allows Aloha Sports officials to work a switch, substituting a bowl-worthy UH team for the Big East slot in the Aloha Bowl.
Aloha Sports’ agreements with the conferences, ABC-TV and ESPN cable expire after this year’s games. But Rohlfing said he intends to honor the UH provision this year, as well as seek to extend it even if the Aloha Bowl is the only postseason game played in Hawai‘i.
"That’s an easy question for me," Rohlfing said, when asked about the future of the provision.
The NCAA requires a bowl to guarantee at least 7,500 tickets to each participating team and sell the majority of tickets to the public. Because the doubleheader is sold as a package, leaving only 20,000 tickets to the public in 50,000-seat Aloha Stadium, Aloha Sports cannot meet the NCAA requirement.
"Right out of the box we’re in violation," Rohlfing said.
He also said fans prefer not to sit through two games. The situation worsened last year when television executives asked to play the games on separate days while still selling tickets as a package. Rohlfing said fewer than 10,000 doubleheader tickets were sold to the public last year.
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