Hawaii governor Neil Abercrombie is not happy that his state has to pay $4 million for the rights to host the NFL Pro Bowl, and he wasn't afraid to voice his displeasure, The Associated Press reports.
While last season's Pro Bowl made Hawaii over $28 million in visitor spending alone, he feels it's "so stupid" that Hawaii has to pay $4 million each year to host the game — advocating that it should be used for educational purposes instead.
"You can't do things like give 4 million bucks to a $9 billion football industry and not give any money to children," Abercrombie said. "You've got this spectacle of these multimillionaires and billionaires out there arguing about how they're going to divide it up, and then they come and ask us to bribe them with $4 million to have a scrimmage out here in paradise."
Abercrombie also shot down the notion that the Pro Bowl was really a big money-maker for the state.
"Oh please. We'll get more out of civil unions in a weekend than we'll get out of those guys. We're going to market. Don't worry about marketing," he said.
