Hawaii has been a great hosting country for the Miss Universe pageant. It all started when Hawaii’s own Brook Lee won the Miss Universe Pageant and brought back the pageant to the islands. But according to some reports, it is not going to happen this year.
Plans to organize the event in November at the Blaisdell Arena have failed because beauty pageant officials say the facility is not structurally good.
“All we know is that they said the rigging was inadequate, that's to hoist things and put screens up, as I understand it,” said Rick Fried, Hawaii Tourism Authority Board chairman.
He also said the City and HTA were first contacted by Miss Universe representatives in May. The chairman got surprised when he came to know that the pageant’s key rigger was in Hawaii some time back to inspect the venue.
Some days back, the president of the Miss Universe Organization broke the news through an email to HTA, saying she was dissatisfied that the event could no longer be held in Hawaii.
Fried's hopes were high. “It was disappointing because we were kind of thinking it was going to happen,” he said.
City Enterprise Services Director Guy Kaulukukui said, it was determined by the pageant that the arena's structural capacity for suspending overhead equipment above the stage area was insufficient for the show's requirements.
But the City cleared it up by saying that the Blaisdell is safe and wrote in a statement emailed to Hawaii News Now on Friday, “arena weight capacity has not been a limiting factor for shows staged in that venue over recent years, for example Bruno Mars, WWE, Diana Ross, Janet Jackson, Garth Brooks, Mariah Carey and more.”
The city already reserved out two weeks in November for pageant use. Now it will have to fill that gap. “What better place to have it than in gorgeous islands, beautiful weather, beautiful culture and people," said Luana Alapa, director of Mrs. Hawaii America Pageant. “It's just sad we don't have the facilities to accommodate that. Hawaii will miss out on millions of dollars.”
Blaisdell worries come just six months after the City released a new master plan for the renovation of the arena and concert hall and replacing the 60,000 square-foot exhibition hall. It comes with a heavy price tag, though - about $400 to $500 million.
The last time Hawaii hosted the Miss Universe competition was in 1998 at the Stan Sheriff Centre. The location was ruled out this year because Fried said it was already booked up for November.
Miss Universe officials on the other hand, did not respond to the matter as of now. Well, the pageant enthusiasts have to wait for any official confirmation from both the parties.
