Hawaii is jonesing for an NFL franchise

Stop the madness.

It’s been reported that tickets for the preseason NFL football game between the Los Angeles Rams and Dallas Cowboys at Aloha Stadium on Saturday, Aug. 17, are going for as high as $5,000 a ticket. Tickets originally listed as $30 per seat were scooped up by scalpers after only being on the market for a few hours. It’s really a shame this practice is accepted.

Spoiler alert, this is not a playoff game or the Super Bowl. It’s preseason, where many of the elite starters will not even play in fear they may be injured for the start of the regular-season.

There’s a good chance the stars of both teams, Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott and LA Rams QB Jared Goff, will see very little to no action.

I always preferred the Pro Bowl when it was in Hawaii. The Pro Bowl has the best of the best. I find it ironic that Pro Bowl tickets are always dirt cheap. People say, they don’t play hard, but you see the stars. Last Pro Bowl I went to, tickets sold for under $20 each.

Before moving to Hawaii when I was the publisher of Alaska People magazine, I used to get press passes to the Pro Bowl and take a yearly pilgrimage to write a short story and photograph the event for the magazine. The theme of the story was always since Alaska, like Hawaii, did not have a team of their own, and since Honolulu was only a five-hour nonstop flight from Anchorage — we billed it as “Alaska’s largest suburb hosts Pro Bowl.”

The NFL always granted us two press passes as long as we wrote a story and had it published! At the same time, Aloha Airlines and Outrigger resorts were advertiser clients, therefore we had advertising contracts we used in trade to cover airfare and lodging for the annual sojourn and business expenses.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell needs to take heed. Hawaii residents are crazy enough to pay $5,000 for a preseason ticket. Hawaii is prime for an NFL franchise even though thousands of miles away from the closest competitor. If nothing else, it’s time to bring the Pro Bowl back permanently to Hawaii!

Hawaii needs an NFL franchise, along with a Powerball lottery. I know, if I don’t like it here, I can move. I am not asking for me, I am asking for the state, for the revenue it will bring.

I sit here scratching my head, as people are crazy enough to pay $5,000 for a preseason ticket to a meaningless game.

For all those who just paid $5,000 for a ticket, I’ve got some awesome timeshares for sale, and some swamp land in Florida you may be interested in.

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James “Kimo” Rosen is a resident of Kapaa.