The NFL has always had an issue with the Pro Bowl. Whether it’s getting players to attend or getting people to watch (even though it’s still a highly watched event compared to non-football TV programming). Now it appears the game could move from their usual Honolulu home to Orlando as the city is bidding on the game for the next three years.
The Orlando Sentinel reports that the city is bidding to host the game starting in 2017. While it is the Pro Bowl and thus on the lower end of importance to the NFL and fans, it’s a very affordable way for a city to be associated with the most popular sport in the United States. Orlando doesn’t have an NFL team and it’s very expensive to host a Super Bowl, so the next best thing is the Pro Bowl.
While this seems like a good deal for the city of Orlando, I don’t know how this helps with some of the NFL’s issues with the game. The NFL has had an problem with players attending the game. After players going to the Super Bowl and players coming up with any sort of reason to not attend the game, most positions are filled with the 5th or 6th ranked player in their respective position. And that’s not really a “Pro Bowl.”
With Honolulu hosting the Pro Bowl, it at least provides a player to maybe want to go and get a free vacation to Hawaii out of things. A free trip to Honolulu is at least enticing for players to take advantage of in exchange of playing in a exhibition game. No offense to Orlando, it’s a lovely city and all but I’m pretty sure players aren’t as thrilled to be having a vacation in Orlando (or Miami in 2010 and Phoenix in 2015) than a vacation in Hawaii. So it potentially could be tougher for players selected to the Pro Bowl to actually go and play in the Pro Bowl.
On the other hand, maybe Orlando is offering the NFL more money than Honolulu is offering to host the game. And if that’s the case, I’m sure the NFL would be okay with whatever issues arise. It may not get nearly as much viewership as a regular season game but the Pro Bowl still gets millions of viewers so as long as people still watch, the NFL will be just fine regardless of what happens.