How has the Hawaii Bowl missed its hometown team?

Let us count the ways. Or, better yet, count the people.

To hear Aloha Stadium manager Scott Chan happily herald it, there has been a “robust” sale of tickets this week for today’s 5:30 p.m. game between the University of Hawaii and Louisiana Tech.

So much so that Chan told the Aloha Stadium Authority Thursday he was forecasting a crowd of 30,000-35,000 for the game after the bowl chose to open up some sections in the north end zone not previously on offer. If that projection holds up, it could produce the bowl’s biggest turnstile count in eight years.

Not surprisingly, it could nearly triple last year’s announced record-low turnout of 12,187 for Fresno State and Houston. There were so many empty seating sections that you almost wished they had adopted a tactic from their late predecessors, the Jeep Eagle Aloha and Oahu bowls, and placed large inflatable plastic vehicles in the stands just to break up the glare off the rows of unused seats.

What would be more significant, if a 30,000-plus turnout materializes today, is that it would also be a considerable improvement on UH’s last appearance when a meager 20,327 showed up for the Rainbow Warriors’ 2016 victory over Middle Tennessee State. That was the smallest draw of its seven Hawaii Bowl visits and half of what it once attracted.

A big difference between 2016 and now is that the Warriors roll in at a respectable 8-5 (5-3 conference) compared to the 6-7 (4-4) record that got them an invitation, but just barely, last time.

That is the kind of freaky year it was in college football.

As much as 2016 marked a much-needed breakthrough for UH after a five-year bowl drought, the record also served to bolster the perception that the ’Bows backed into the backyard bowl rather than earned it, hardly a compelling driver for ticket sales.

Small wonder, perhaps, that the Mountain West Conference that UH calls home now has a policy that requires the league to take into consideration its teams’ records when parceling out bowl opportunities in years when there are more bowl-eligible members than contracted slots.

Years, for example, like this one when seven schools were bowl-eligible and there were but six available openings leaving Wyoming in front of the TV instead of appearing on it. A particularly sad fate in Laramie, Wyo., when the high temperature is less than 30 degrees.

Fortunately for UH and, by extension, the Hawaii Bowl, quarterback Chevan Cordeiro helped pull things out with some late touchdowns against Wyoming and Nevada-Las Vegas. That and Cole McDonald and the defense’s resurgent play in the ’Bows regular-season-closing victory at San Diego State spared the bowl who knows what kind of a matchup and the likelihood of a record for empty seats.

What the game’s owner and operator, ESPN Events, has this year with UH at 8-5 and on a non-Christmas Eve Saturday is what amounts to a reward for its enduring patience. Sticking with the game in an extended period of lean years — six ’Bow-less games in a seven-year span — can’t have been easy.

But, thankfully for UH, which would otherwise have some dwindling postseason options in years when it was bowl eligible, ESPN held to its investment. As a result, the game is on track to reach a milestone 20th anniversary in 2021, a prospect there were grounds to seriously wonder about this time last year.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.