NBC good enough for Bruno Mars, Mariah Carey, but not for Miss Universe Pageant

Posted: Jul 28, 2017 9:38 PM
Updated: Jul 29, 2017 12:06 AM
By Catherine Cruz 

HONOLULU - It was a proud moment when Hawaii own Brooke Lee was crowned Miss Universe back in 1997.

There had been hopes the islands could play host once again and when the possibility surfaced recently, people began talking.

"We wanted to see the 20th anniversary of her crowning and bring it back home,” said Mayor Kirk Caldwell.

"Everyone's hopes were up and we spent a lot of time to see if we could make this work,” said Hawaii Tourism Authority Board Chair Rick Freid.

But those dreams were dashed this week for two reasons.

The pageant said a visit to the Neil Blaisdell Center by its rigger on Monday was not favorable

According to emails from the Pageant... "He had serious cause for concern in the facility being able to structurally accommodate a show of our size.

And added: "... there does not appear to appear to be any up-to-date structural plans in existence."

But the other reason is that the Hawaii Tourism Authority requested a copy of the contract with the promoter after the state was asked to provide millions of dollars to help offset the event.

"We were quite willing to entertain it even with a short fuse but we needed some basic information. We were told there was a contract, we were told an investor invested millions of dollars in this. We need confirmation, we never got anything," said Freid.
After coming off a Stevie Wonder concert debacle, Hawaii didn’t need a repeat, and Freid said the HTA wanted to be careful.

He said Hawaii would welcome the pageant back with more lead time to make it work.
"Let’s hope it comes back, it would be great," said Freid.
The last time the pageant was held in the Hawaii it was held at the Stan Sherriff Center but it was not available in November.

According to the city when it was contacted back in May, it blocked out times in both the Blaisdell arena and the concert hall. But now that the pageant isn't happening here, all those times are up for grabs.

The mayor wants the public to rest assures that the arena is safe.
The city has begun exploring a private public partnership to renovate the facility to make the NBC work for both Bruno Mars and Miss Universe.

"We just need to make sure in the future we don't have to say no to folks," said Caldwell.

http://www.kitv.com/story/35999269/neal-blaisdell-center-not-sufficient-to-host-miss-universe-pageant