The Pro Bowl has been seen as a prize for Hawaii, as well as a perk for the star NFL athletes who are tapped to come for the annual exhibition game at Aloha Stadium. It televises images of the state’s sunny climate to a national audience that typically is holed up in wintry weather, images that can only solidify the islands’ brand as a visitor destination.
Sunday’s disastrous traffic jam, however, has siphoned away much of that benefit, and certainly all of the goodwill among the disappointed fans stuck in gridlock. If the event means anything to the authorities who want to keep it here, things need to change.
For starters, the audience got a view that was anything but impressive. When the game started at 2 p.m., viewers saw thousands of empty seats in a venue accommodating 50,000. This was touted to be a sellout crowd.
Dave Reardon, Honolulu Star-Advertiser sports columnist, had no trouble finding a few representative anecdotal reports from disappointed ticket-buyers.
One came from Waipahu resident Donald Martinez, who arrived at the stadium in the morning and waited four hours for his friends. With tailgate-party food in tow, they got mired in traffic and ended up at Ford Island, essentially ditching the party plans and forfeiting $100 tickets.
He, like other Hawaii kamaaina fans, had braved crowds at professional football games on the mainland, without trouble. And many visitors who came here expressly to enjoy the game found instead they were unable to get into the at-capacity parking lot, and then unsure of how to move on to an alternative space.
Samantha Spain, marketing spokeswoman for the Aloha Stadium, said the Stadium Authority is still consulting this week with all the involved agencies, including the NFL, the Honolulu Police Department and the state Department of Transportation.
Even the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation is part of the picture. HART now controls the Kamehameha lot, Spain said: Its spaces are no longer available for stadium parking, because it’s the future site of the stadium rail stop.
The 2016 traffic jam was worse than last year’s, she added, because it was a sellout. But she acknowledged that it was known to be a sellout on the Friday afternoon before the game.
Planners — from all the agencies — should have come up with contingencies well in advance, enabling better directions to routes and detours.
The stadium could not afford this kind of gaffe at this juncture. It was only in December that Hawaii’s reputation took a hit after the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team backed out of its scheduled match there, complaining that the condition of the artificial turf was shoddy enough to be unsafe.
Now this happens, in the midst of the football league’s debate over whether to bring the Pro Bowl back here next year. The players have always favored the Hawaii location, but after this black eye, it’s unclear whether even that is true any longer.
Martinez shared his theory about the behind-closed-doors discussions among the agencies involved.
“It seems so many were running this event and no one knew what the other was doing, and they all seem afraid to admit error,” Martinez said.
The Stadium Authority, wary about Pro Bowl prospects, is “not pointing fingers on anyone,” Spain said. “We want to support our clients.”
Even so, the authority owes the public an explanation, plus a plan to avert this disaster for the next Pro Bowl — if there is one — or any other large-scale event.
Traffic management and planning present a challenge in cities nationwide. But if sports tourism is to have a future in Honolulu, those in charge have to demonstrate that the situation is in hand, not out of control.
