Despite attracting the smallest Aloha Stadium crowd in University of Hawai'i head coach June Jones' five seasons — 25,551 — for last night's Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl, officials said they still see a bright future for the game.

"I think a lot of people missed out of a great game, but generally I'm pleased with the game," said Pete Derzis, vice president of ESPN Regional Television (ERT), which owns and operates the game.

"We would have loved to have had more people in the stadium, but it is a building process," Derzis said. "I still think this can be a great game and we'll sit down and take a look at how it can be grown."

Last year's game, matching Hawai'i and Tulane, drew approximately 30,000, ESPN has a four-year deal with the participating conferences (Western Athletic Conference and Conference USA) to hold the game.

"This is a good game for not only us but the whole state," said Ernest Nishizaki of Kyo-ya Corp and Sheraton, the game's title sponsor.

UH coach June Jones said he is lobbying ESPN to black out not only future Hawai'i bowl games but all home games involving UH. "There's no reason this game cannot be blacked out locally and, to be quite honest, we need to do that and look at a way to do it to the conference games, too."

Derzis said ERT will see that the WAC and C-USA will receive at least $750,000 each for their participation.

The $750,000 figure had been the minimum until this year when new NCAA guidelines lowered the figure.

Last year the participating conferences received more than $800,000 each, money that is distributed to teams based on conference formulas.

• Singletary had game face on: Hawai'i defensive line coach Vantz Singletary painted his face especially for yesterday's bowl game.

Singletary's face was painted green, white and black, and looked similar to the design Hawai'i mascot Vili "The Warrior" Fehoko wears.

Singletary received several seconds of quality air time when ESPN cameras zoomed on his face in the first half.

• Owens was ready, but not needed: Hawai'i junior slotback Chad Owens did not play in yesterday's game because a left toe sprain limited his ability to practice.

Owens, Hawai'i's leading receiver with 58 catches for 1,134 yards and nine touchdowns this season, was replaced by Britton Komine.

"You can't play if you can't practice," Owens said. "Britt Komine was doing a good job this whole week. He deserves to play. I wasn't mad that I wasn't playing."

Owens said if the team needed him, he was ready to play, but he added that "I wasn't going to play unless something happened, or Britt got hurt."

Owens said he had practiced a "couple of days" with the injury and endured great pain.

• Helmet-less Brewster: Hawai'i running back Michael Brewster said he lost his helmet during the scuffle after the game. Brewster said he did not participate in the fight, but someone swiped his helmet.