Hawaii lawmaker laments Pro Bowl’s move to Florida

Published 4:44 pm Tuesday, May 31, 2016

HONOLULU (AP) — Losing the NFL’s Pro Bowl to Orlando, Florida, is a sign Hawaii needs to needs to compete harder, said state Rep. Tom Brower, the chairman of the tourism committee in the state House of Representatives.

The game is important to the tourism industry for the exposure it gives the state and for the people it brings to Hawaii, Brower said. It stings to lose the revenue, he said.

“That’s a sign that we need to compete harder,” Brower said, adding he hopes the game will return to Hawaii in the future.

Three people with knowledge of the negotiations told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the NFL would move the game to Orlando. The NFL will announce the move during a news conference scheduled with ESPN in Florida on Wednesday.

Hawaii Tourism Authority spokeswoman Charlene Chan said the NFL has asked the agency to refrain from commenting until it announces its decision.

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The tourism authority, a state agency that promotes travel to Hawaii, paid the NFL $5 million to host the all-star game at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu this past January. The agency’s contract will the NFL called for the tourism authority to pay another $5 million to bring the game back in 2017, but the deal allowed either side to back out by Tuesday.

The agency has said the television broadcast of the 2014 Pro Bowl gave Hawaii exposure worth $26.2 million. The game also brought 15,000 visitors to the islands.

Honolulu hosted the game for 30 years until the NFL moved it to Miami in 2010. It returned to the islands afterward, but it was held in Glendale, Arizona, in 2015.