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Switch in plans saves Pro Bowl blackout; game will be televised
By Scary Barry February 7, 2009 |
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HONOLULU--Last night NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell extended the sell out deadline to 11:30AM for Saturday morning. The deadline was extended twice once on Thursday to Friday 11:30AM and then again for Saturday at 11:30AM. With just a little less than a 1000 tickets left there was a sudden rush to scoop them up and a sell out was announced just before the 11:30AM Saturday morning deadline 24 hours before kick off on Sunday. If the game had not been sold out it would have been blacked out to the entire state of Hawaii the state that has hosted the game for the last 30 years. The game will be shown in the mainland but sports bars, restaurants, and local businesses with big screens in Honolulu would have ended up showing ESPN, NFL Network and other networks doing other programming from poker to old Super Bowl games. This time and barely in the nick of time the fans without tickets will get to see the game live from Aloha Stadium. Where the 50,000 seat capacity stadium will hold it's 29th sold out game out of 30 games. The only non-sell out was in 1982 due to the players strike. It was a sigh of relief for Goodell who has scheduled the game for rotation with the Super Bowl starting next season. It would have been an absurdity if the game got blacked out in a market that hosts the NFL only once a year and in it's last year at that. Reasons for the near sell out miss and blacking it out was due to the current economic crisis and the lack of interest following Goodell's announcement that the game would now be rotated with the Super Bowl in each of the Super Bowl cities. The latest word now is that the NFL and the Hawaiian Tourism Authority are close to an agreement to keep the game in Honolulu. Talks have continued to try and bring the game back after 2010 which would give the stadium renovations some 24 months at the very least to remodel and get the park ready by February 2011. "We really hope we're going to be back right away, we consider Honolulu one of our homes as well."said Frank Supovitz, NFL senior vice president. Some of the elite players have stated that they would stay away next season in order to prove their point that no one cares for the game if the elite players take a pass on the game and from the players point of view that they want the game to remain in Hawaii. Goodell made a point that everything is conducive on the TV ratings as well as for the game in Miami. If no one watches and the game is sold out the purpose of leaving Honolulu would be mute. Still negotiations continue in the back rooms here in Honolulu between the Commissioner and his staff and the HTA. Fans have conveyed that they won't attend a Pro Bowl back on the main land either and in Miami to kick it off is not exactly a desirable place for the Pro Bowl anyway. The only other places on the main land that may work and that's a big maybe would be, New Orleans or Las Vegas most other places would not work. So after talking with officials, fans, players and media members it's over whelming that the game should stay in Hawaii and the negotiations roll on. Scary Barry is covering the 2009 Pro Bowl in Honolulu for Sportstalk Radio |
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