National Football League (NFL) Commissioner Roger Goodell is considering moving the annual Pro Bowl post-season all-star game to a venue on the U.S. mainland as early as 2015.
“We committed to Hawaii, as you know, for the 2014 [Pro Bowl] game; it will be the week before the Super Bowl,” Goodell said in a press conference on May 21 during the NFL’s spring meetings.
“There is interest in potentially bringing it back to the mainland in multiple sites as early as the following year,” he added.
The Pro Bowl has been played in Hawaii for the last 33 years with just one exception: the 2010 game took place in Miami, the site of that year’s Super Bowl.
“We are having ongoing discussions with the NFL and look forward to continuing our long-standing relationship,” Mike McCartney, president and CEO of the Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA), said in a statement on May 21.
The HTA paid the NFL $8 million to host both the 2011 and 2012 Pro Bowls at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, also the site of this year’s all-star matchup.
According to the state agency, the 2012 Pro Bowl was watched by 12.5 million viewers and drew more than 15,000 travelers to Oahu specifically for the game, generating $25.3 million in visitor spending.