Posted on: Wednesday, August 8, 2001

Group seeks to return Aloha Bowl here

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Writer

A group that wants to return the Aloha Bowl to Honolulu is scheduled to discuss a purchase with the owners of the game Friday.

Ken Hoffman, executive director of the Pontiac, Mich.-based Motor City Bowl, says he expects to talk with Fritz Rohlfing and Terry Daw, operators of the Aloha Bowl.

"We'll be talking in more detail with them late in the day," said Hoffman, who has described previous phone conversations as "exploratory."

By Friday, Aloha Sports Inc. should better know where it stands in on-going attempts to locate the game in Anaheim, Calif., or Columbia, S.C.

The game, which for 18 years had been held at Aloha Stadium, was supposed to move to San Francisco this Christmas. But organizers there balked at the Dec. 25 date demanded by ABC television, forcing Aloha Sports Inc. to look elsewhere.

Since last week, operators have been exploring the possibility of moving the game to Columbia, and renaming it the "Palmetto Bowl."

"South Carolina has a lot going for it in terms of football — it's a different mindset from Hawai'i," Daw told The State newspaper of Columbia, S.C.

But without a Southeastern Conference tie-in — the top seven finishers in the 12-team SEC are already aligned with other bowls — officials at South Carolina and Clemson have said they are reluctant to let the bowl use their stadiums.

When asked about the possibility of playing the game in Williams-Brice Stadium, South Carolina athletic director Mike McGee told The State newspaper, "I don't think so and you can print that I was chuckling."

Hoffman said his group wants to keep the name Aloha Bowl and return the game to Aloha Stadium this December. But if his group is to purchase the Aloha Bowl, it will have to happen "in the next 30 days or it will be just about impossible," Hoffman said. "The clock is running."

Representatives of the Pac-10 and Western Athletic Conference said they would be willing to talk to officials about a Honolulu-based bowl.

The Pac-10, which was to have sent its No. 4 team to the Aloha Bowl, has made a commitment to send it to the new Seattle Bowl instead, and is close to a commitment that will send its fifth-place team to the Las Vegas Bowl.