Owners vote to keep Pro Bowl here

Advertiser Staff

The 32 NFL owners this week unanimously voted in favor of keeping the Pro Bowl in Honolulu through 2009, according to negotiators.

With their vote, owners granted the league permission to finalize a contract during their meetings in Amelia Island, Fla., after hearing a status report from NFL staff on Pro Bowl negotiations, said Hawai'i Tourism Authority executive director Rex Johnson.

"It certainly is a plus," said Johnson, who is helping with negotiations. "We would be hard-pressed to have a Pro Bowl in Hawai'i if the owners didn't like it."

The NFL and state hope to finalize a contract as early as June that would keep the all-star game at Aloha Stadium through 2009, Johnson said.

A tentative five-year deal was reached in February to keep the game in Honolulu, which has hosted the event for the past 25 years.

The Pro Bowl is the most expensive sporting event the state pays to host, nearly doubling the $2.7 million paid for 16 other sporting events this fiscal year, according to HTA statistics.

The price the state pays the NFL to host the Pro Bowl has increased to more than $5.3 million for the most recent game in February, and was to cost $5.6 million for 2005.

However, Hawai'i's payments are expected to be reduced once the new extension is finalized, according to Larry Johnson, an HTA board member and the state's chief negotiator for the Pro Bowl.

Jim Steeg, NFL senior vice president for special events who is also involved in negotiations, said a deal could be reached in the next 45 days.

"We have not concluded the negotiations yet," Steeg said. "We hope to do that soon. We're getting lawyers to get it all on a contract right now."

Steeg said a few owners talked about "moving the game elsewhere," but the owners later agreed that Honolulu was the "best place for it."