Report: Hula Bowl revival in NC unlikely to happen

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - It doesn't appear the Hula Bowl will be revived in North Carolina after all.

The News & Observer of Raleigh reports (http://bit.ly/2mHmXeO) correspondence obtained through a public-records request shows the college football all-star game is unlikely to come to Raleigh. The newspaper said the drive to bring the game last played in 2008 to North Carolina State's Carter-Finley Stadium was tied to Republican Gov. Pat McCrory's re-election bid.

McCrory touted the game after the state lost the NBA all-star game as well as NCAA and Atlantic Coast Conference championship events following passage of legislation limiting protections for the LGBT community. McCrory lost the November election to Roy Cooper.

Athletics spokesman Fred Demarest said North Carolina State has had no additional communication regarding the Hula Bowl and doesn't anticipate hosting it.

The announcement came in November, saying the game that was played annually in Hawaii beginning in 1946 would resume in January 2018. The game was scheduled to rotate between North Carolina and Hawaii starting in 2019.

But in a Jan. 3 email, North Carolina State director of athletics event sales and operations Liz Brown raised doubt on whether it would be played.

"The game was a main focus during the election and we feel will not actually come to fruition," Brown wrote in the email to managers of PNC Arena - which manages parking around Carter-Finley Stadium.

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Information from: The News & Observer, http://www.newsobserver.com