Dave Reardon: Pandemic has caused irreparable damage for Hawaii sports

Perhaps you have seen the commercial.

A voiceover promises “A new home … a new season … a new attitude,” as images of University of Hawaii football action flash across the screen. Then the video cuts to a shot of empty stands at the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex, and zooms in.

This ad for UH football pay-per-view has been in rotation for many weeks and must have been produced before the current season started — and before it was known that those empty seats at UH’s new home field would prove to be prophetic for the first half of the season.

On Saturday morning, immediately after a playing of that commercial, a preview feature for the Texas-Oklahoma Red River rivalry game started with an overhead view of a stadium full of fans — half in burnt orange, half in crimson.

The contrast is stark, and emphasizes something that isn’t new for UH football — actually, for sports in Hawaii, in general. Live in-person attendance had been steadily dwindling for decades even before the pandemic canceled games. And then, the emergency executive orders prohibited spectators after the games re-started.

The lifting of those restrictions announced Friday have been rightfully celebrated, but it’s just a start. Now it’s time to assess the damage and rebuild. It’s said sometimes you have to hit rock bottom before you start to get better, and that’s what it looks like at The Quarry, which is what UH’s lower-campus home of its sports programs used to be widely known as.

The pandemic accelerated some changes and trends that were already in motion in many aspects of life, for better or worse. When it became necessity, everything became a “beta test.” Employers and educators continue to wrestle with the relative merits of in person and distance. So do sports leaders.

“Made for TV” sports events are nothing new, and now even more prevalent with the availability of video streaming via the internet.

The Ironman triathlon on Hawaii island and the Maui Invitational college basketball tournament were two longstanding premier events synonymous with Hawaii. Within the past month, both announced they are leaving the islands for at least this year, the Ironman to Utah and the Maui tournament to Las Vegas.

Neither is a prime in-person spectator event, so some Hawaii sports fans might shrug and not care if they return. But the exodus is troublesome because these are two events that contributed to neighbor island economies, and that of the state.

They seemed rooted here, with Hawaii a big part of their identity.

That’s even more the case with the Hula Bowl, the college football all-star game that thrived, struggled, died in 2008, then in 2020 returned to life with fresh sponsorship — only to move to Orlando for next January’s game.

The Hula Bowl had tried to move to the continent before, in the ’10s, which seemed just as ludicrous then, like if The Eddie were moved to a surf spot in Brazil. But now, as it is with the triathlon and basketball tournament to at least some degree, the uncertainty caused by the pandemic restrictions here provided cover for an exit.

Organizers of these events often say they’ll come back, but who really knows?

Other events coming up soon include the Honolulu Marathon in December and the Polynesian Bowl high school football all-star game in January. Both will have to adjust on the fly based on how protocols continue to change.

The Hawaii Bowl and Diamond Head Classic, both in late December, are linked to UH. They are both heavily TV-driven. One of the many tasks University of Hawaii athletic director David Matlin now faces is to assure ESPN and other partners that the state’s re-opening will pick up speed.

For UH itself, you can be an optimist and envision that the forced descent to zero attendance will revive interest in live spectatorship. The pessimist will claim the core base of ticket-purchasers eroded further during the pandemic, and got used to watching from afar on a screen.

Either way, the 1,000-spectator cap for football and a few hundred for volleyball announced Friday is a toe-dip into the pool. Hawaii fans have seen the contrast between their own empty venue and huge, full stadiums at other college games for two months now.

Some have even been in those crowds, and their message is to jump on in, the water’s fine.