Notre Dame has struggled to win football games lately but there is still box office magic attached to its name, the Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl is happily learning.

More than 5,000 tickets to the Dec. 24 game with the University of Hawai'i were sold in the first 24 hours after Sunday afternoon's announcement of the Irish's participation in the game, Hawai'i Bowl executive director David A. K. Matlin said yesterday.

As of midday yesterday, Matlin estimated about 25,000 tickets had already been sold for the game that pairs Notre Dame (6-6) and UH (7-6).

"It has been a bit overwhelming," Matlin said. "We're selling them so fast, we're having trouble keeping up the count. But this is the most following the announcement of the second team, by far."

The largest turnstile attendance in the previous six years of the Hawai'i Bowl was 40,623 for the 2006 game matching UH and Arizona State. There were 43,435 tickets distributed, UH said.

That game had 25 more days in which to sell tickets because the Warriors clinched their bowl berth Nov. 4 that year, compared with Nov. 29 this season.

Notre Dame's only previous bowl appearance here, in 1984 against Southern Methodist in the Aloha Bowl, attracted 41,777, according to Notre Dame records.

UH sold out its 1991 regular season appearance against Notre Dame but barely hit 40,000 for the Irish's return in 1997.

For this year's game, Matlin said the rush of orders following the announcement of Notre Dame was mainly local, he believed.

"There were some Internet orders, so they could be from the Mainland, but it seems most are local so far," he said.

INQUIRIES FROM CANADA

Matlin said the game had 400 inquiries from Notre Dame fans within hours of an e-mail blast sent out by the Irish to their fans.

"How many of those will translate into sales, I couldn't tell you right now, but we've had people from Canada inquiring, which shows you the interest," Matlin said.

Notre Dame home tickets are hard to come by, with 205 consecutive sellouts of Notre Dame Stadium, which has been expanded to 80,012. Lotteries are held for eligible alumni and contributors to buy single-game tickets.

Matlin said 1,200 tickets in the first installment were over-nighted to Notre Dame, which has just begun to offer tickets to its alumni, fans and boosters. He said he was still in discussions with Notre Dame officials on how many tickets they will require.

ASU and Houston in 2003 each brought more than 1,000 fans, the most by visiting teams, Matlin said.

Unlike many bowls, the Hawai'i Bowl said it does not require the participants to sell a minimum amount of tickets. For example, UH was pledged to sell 17,500 tickets for the Sugar Bowl in January.