Posted on: Friday, August 1, 2003

Sheraton a candidate to sponsor 2003 Hawai'i Bowl

Advertiser Staff

Sheraton Hotels in Hawai'i is involved in negotiations that could make it the title sponsor of this year's Hawai'i Bowl.

People familiar with the process, who have asked not to be named because of on-going talks, say Sheraton could replace ConAgra Foods, which held the sponsorship in the football game's inaugural season last year.

Officials of ESPN Regional Television (ERT), which operates the Christmas Day bowl at Aloha Stadium, did not return calls yesterday but Pete Derzis, vice president of ERT, has said an announcement was possible in early August.

The University of Hawai'i is guaranteed a berth in this year's game if the Warriors win seven or more of their 13 regular-season games to become bowl eligible.

The Hawai'i Bowl is contracted to match UH or a Western Athletic Conference representative against the third choice of bowl-eligible teams from Conference USA. Last year, Tulane defeated UH, 36-28, in a game viewed by more than 2.1 million households on ESPN. The game paid each conference $868,000.

ConAgra, which pulled its sponsorship in June to concentrate on other areas, according to ERT, had a Hawai'i Bowl deal valued at "mid-six figures," according to Jim Donovan, executive director of the game.