Driving by Aloha Stadium on vacation a couple of summers ago Kevin Demoff remembers thinking, “how (cool) it would be for the Los Angeles Rams to be playing there.”
As the chief operating officer and executive vice president of football operations of the Super Bowl runners-up, Demoff has the power to turn it into reality and is well into negotiations with the Dallas Cowboys about coming along to play the Rams in their Hawaii Tourism Authority-sponsored August preseason game in Halawa.
The Cowboys — the highest-valued pro sports franchise in the world at $5 billion, according to Forbes — have emerged as the leading candidate, said several people briefed on the possibility.
“We’re looking forward to finalizing details and having an announcement in a couple of weeks,” Demoff told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser Wednesday. Demoff said the Rams have talked to several West Coast teams but aren’t ready to announce the pairing, date or ticket prices for the game yet.
The game would be the first played by NFL teams here since the San Francisco 49ers and San Diego Chargers met in then-year old Aloha Stadium in 1976.
The Rams became a possibility because their new home, LA Stadium, is under construction in Inglewood, Calif., and isn’t scheduled to open until 2020 while their temporary abode, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, will be undergoing renovation part of this summer.
The Cowboys, who the Rams defeated 30-22 in the Divisional Playoffs in January, are a natural fit because they have renewed plans to hold their training camp in Oxnard, Calif., for 2019 and ‘20 and have been regular preseason opponents of the Rams.
Rams officials are scheduled to be in Honolulu next week for a site inspection at Aloha Stadium, the team confirmed.
In November, the Rams concluded parallel agreements with the HTA and Aloha Stadium to play a game in Halawa as well as hold at least one open practice and a “fan fest” as part of what could be a four-to-five day visit that will be televised on the West Coast.
The HTA is sponsoring the game as part of its marketing agreement with the team. Southern California is the HTA’s largest visitor market and the HTA has been a featured partner in Rams media and advertising. The trip is featured on the “Aloha Rams” portion of the team’s website.
According to contracts obtained under the state’s open records law, the Rams are responsible for underwriting travel and expenses for both teams, which is pegged at approximately $750,000, out of the $2 million they receive from the HTA.
