Bid to move Aloha Bowl back to Hawai'i fails

Advertiser Staff

An offer that would have returned the Aloha Bowl to Honolulu has fallen through, and in the diminishing chances the game survives, it apparently will not be played in Hawai'i.

Operators of the Motor City Bowl in Pontiac, Mich., were unable to secure the rights to the game from Aloha Sports Inc., according to a person familiar with the proposal.

Where the game that has spent its 18-year life in Aloha Stadium might end up is not certain after the University of South Carolina refused to make its stadium available and the Pacific-10 Conference severed its association.

If the game isn't held this year, it would lose its certification, bowl officials have said.

The South Carolina Board of Trustees refused to take under consideration a proposal that would have brought the game to Williams-Brice Stadium, effectively ending its chances of moving to Columbia, S.C., this season, a school spokesman said.

The school's athletic director and school president had said they would not allow the 80,250-seat stadium to be used by the Aloha Bowl. Proponents of such a game had hoped the trustees would override the decision.

At the same time, the Pac-10, which had committed to having one of its teams appear in the game, said it would send its representative elsewhere. San Francisco's Pac Bell Park and Anaheim's Edison International Field had each been proposed.

But Jim Muldoon, Pac-10 spokesman, said the conference didn't think the game could be successful in Anaheim on Christmas Day, "which is the same conclusion people in San Francisco had reached."

Aloha Sports Inc. purchased the Aloha and O'ahu bowls from Bowl Games of Hawai'i last year, but severed what had been a Dec. 25 doubleheader. Playing the games on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day proved a poor attraction, drawing fewer than 25,000 fans combined.

To save the games, Aloha Sports Inc. said it would have to find new homes. Operators moved the former O'ahu Bowl to Seattle but have been unable to find a home for the Aloha Bowl, which, if it hopes to keep its television contract with ABC, must be played on Christmas Day.

Aloha Sports Inc. officials were not available for comment yesterday.