A Sugar Bowl representative told members of the Bowl Championship Series yesterday that he isn't sure all the Hawai'i fans have left New Orleans yet.

" 'There may still be some (Warriors' fans) on Bourbon Street,' they said," recounted Western Athletic Conference commissioner Karl Benson, who is attending the annual meetings that wind up in Hollywood, Fla. today.

"I think he was joking, but, seriously, they were very happy with the Hawai'i turnout," Benson said. "Both the Sugar Bowl and Fox were very happy with what Hawai'i brought to the game."

Georgia beat UH, 41-10, Jan. 1 in the Warriors' first BCS appearance.

Paul J. Hoolahan, Sugar Bowl chief executive officer, said, "we were absolutely delighted with the turnout." Hoolahan said it has been difficult to tab the number of Hawai'i fans — both those from the Islands and Mainland — who attended the game but said estimates of 15,000 to 20,000 "are about right."

There had been fears entering the game that Hawai'i would have scant representation, so much that UH took 4,000 tickets less than the full 17,500 initial allotment.

Hoolahan told the 11 conference commissioners and Notre Dame representative who attend the meetings that the economic impact of the Jan. 1 Sugar Bowl and BCS Championship game that followed it were worth approximately $400 million to the city. It was expected the Sugar Bowl would produce about $175 million of that.

The New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau has said the two biggest post-Katrina passenger days at Louis Armstrong New Orleans Airport were the day following the Sugar Bowl (18,000) and the Tuesday after the BCS Championship game (19,000).

"I think the reaction from both Fox and the Sugar Bowl is that leading up to the kickoff was a home run," Benson said. "And the outcome of the game certainly didn't do anything to diminish that impact Hawai'i had on the Sugar Bowl."

Nearly eight million households tuned in to watch, ranking the game sixth in viewership among the 32 bowl games played for the 2007 season.

While the Fox audience was a 17-percent drop from the previous New Year's game (Boise State vs. Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl), network officials have said they were satisfied with viewership. Dan Bell, Fox vice president for communications, said, "We are pleased with the rating because the Sugar Bowl helped us dominate all other television competition that night."

Fox said the Sugar Bowl and its pre-game show combined for a 12 percent win over second-place NBC in the "key" adults age 18-to-49 demographic.

Sugar Bowl spokesman Duane Lewis has termed the Sugar Bowl rating, "a very solid rating. Given the fact that the game was lopsided, it was still a good number."

"Hawai'i and Boise State had prominent parts in Fox's media presentation (yesterday)," Benson said.

The WAC has been touting its consecutive appearances in the BCS as the only non-BCS signatory to manage the feat with "Back to Back" T-shirts featuring UH and Boise State logos mailed out to national media.

Fresno State is expected to be the preseason WAC favorite for 2008 and Benson said, "we had Boise in the Fiesta Bowl, Hawai'i in the Sugar Bowl, so why not Fresno State in the Orange Bowl this season?"

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The WAC could gain another postseason bowl tie in for 2008.

The NCAA Licensing Subcommittee begins meetings today in Florida to consider three proposed bowls for 2008, one of which, the Rocky Mountain Bowl in Salt Lake City, is expected to match representatives from the WAC and Mountain West at Utah's Rice-Eccles Stadium.

The others under study are the Congressional Bowl in Washington, D.C., matching a service academy against an Atlantic Coast Conference team at Nationals Park, and the St. Petersburg-Tampa Bowl, pairing representatives from Conference USA and Big East at Tropicana Field.

The WAC currently has ties with the Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl, the Humanitarian Bowl in Boise and New Mexico Bowl in Albuquerque, N.M.

UH will appear in the Hawai'i Bowl provided it wins at least seven games to earn bowl eligibility.