Neil Abercrombie came dangerously close this week to hijacking his own press conference, like the governor did two years ago when a little grip-and-grin about early childhood education somehow turned into a tirade against the state continuing to give the NFL $4 million a year for the rights to host the Pro Bowl.

This time it was the opposite — a sports-related presser misdirected by real-world events, the same-gender marriage vote and the federal government shutdown. Egged on just a bit by a reporter, Abercrombie went off on the Tea Party just as hard as he blitzed the NFL in 2011.

But this time he reined himself in after about 10 minutes.

"Back to sports," the governor said, generating laughter and applause from most of the room.The agenda topic was the state’s new Sports Development Initiative. And it includes everything you can imagine, from rugby to MMA to sailing to football to facilities. Especially, it seems, facilities.

Just make a list of every sports-slash-money-slash-political issue that has come up in Hawaii over the past 20 years or so, and Abercrombie and Lt. Gov. Shan Tsutsui touched upon it in their prepared remarks or afterward. They say this initiative will address them all, and generate new events and, hence, revenue.

Even the latest huhu over competitive balance in high school football came up. Abercrombie brought it up himself on the side afterward. He explained why the Sports Development Initiative might get involved in reorganizing high school football.

"When you’ve got a state like ours where you’ve got small schools that try to field teams (and) there’s difficulties in making arrangements … some teams felt they had to forfeit games," Abercrombie said. "That’s been an ongoing organizational problem. Competitive balance is difficult to achieve. It’d be one thing if there’s something obvious to correct all those things. The point is I bring it up in saying these are serious questions that have a lot of community interest across the board and, so, what we thought is let’s try to address them in a broad-based way and see if we can come to some conclusions."

Aloha Stadium remains central to the biggest sports issues in Hawaii, short-term and long-term. Short-term, relief for the University of Hawaii and its raw deal that produces such little revenue from football games. Long-term, what is going to happen to the facility that is closing in on 40 years old.

Tsutsui wants to make a deal with the National Parks Service to remove the deeds restriction on the land around the stadium that prohibits commercial enterprise, removing the restriction in exchange for another parcel of land somewhere else in the state.

Tsutsui is taking on a huge job and you have to wonder how much can actually get done without additional resources.

"It’s self contained," he said. "I’m not going to ask the Legislature for more money for my office in terms of staffing or anything. I’m just looking to be the liaison, so to speak. But obviously, when we start looking at facilities …"

That’s when the big-money questions come up.

Abercrombie spoke of the America’s Cup as if the weightlifting and boxing aficionado has suddenly become the world’s greatest sailing fan. That’s because of Larry Ellison and Oracle’s recent win that Abercrombie termed "the greatest comeback in history."

It’s possible Ellison’s money could help the state’s sports scene immeasurably. But one of the most important things to consider is how much "money" can cost. Ask people in the Bay Area. They are worried the public could be stuck with much of the bill for hosting the America’s Cup since sponsorships came up short.

How much influence do you want from one source? That question also comes into play with Abercrombie and Tsutsui, themselves. You want just enough government in your sports to secure funding and help grease the skids … more than that is meddling, right?

It’s one of the many issues Tsutsui will encounter. Abercrombie also mentioned the role of the Hawaii Tourism Authority, and the possibility of UH having to go to Division II in sports. The list is endless, and in many cases contentious.

Tuesday’s press conference provided no real answers. Just a promise that the questions will be addressed.