The interwebs seem to be aflutter lately about a press conference that Hawaii's governor held this past Thursday. In it, he stated that he couldn't see spending $4M on the NFL Pro Bowl every year, when that money could be sent to education programs. Most of the comments are from people who apparently didn't take high school economics.
2009 was the first time that the Pro Bowl was not held here in Hawaii since it's inception. This pissed a lot of people off, because every year prior, it had been a sold out game. So come 2010, a deal was reached by then Honolulu mayor Mufi Hanneman to bring the Pro Bowl back to our little island, to the tune of $4M per game to come from state taxes.
So, here's how the numbers broke down for the 2010 game:
- Number of visitors to the state for the game: 17,000
- Total amount of revenue generated from the game: $28.15M
- Amount the state received back from the game: $3.07M
Now let me get this straight... Are these people advocating that we should throw away $993K/year, just so we have the privilege of hosting an NFL game that has absolutely no standing with regards to the players, the season, or the post season? If I'm correct, this game is literally just a way for my state to feel like we're included in the NFL because our total population is too small to warrant having an actual NFL team. No wonder the Governor wants that money to go to education. Hawaii already has the shortest school year in the nation (163 days), in addition to having one of the poorest funded public education systems. Now in terms of education $4M might not be much, but it's $4M more than they're getting now. Maybe it will teach people that spending $4M to make back only $3.07M is a poor investment. Of course, if we're already at the panem et circenses stage, then maybe said people just don't care.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
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