There are professional football teams all over the United States but none on the Islands of Hawaii. Many football fans wonder why that is.
There are no football teams in Hawaii because of the travel required, the lack of population, and the lack of a proper stadium.
The NFL has not expanded in many years meaning if Hawaii wanted a team they would likely have to replace another franchise. In order to do this, teams need to prove that the new location is a better option for the franchise.
Since Hawaii lacks several key features for gaining an NFL team they will likely not be able to get approval from the NFL.
Major issues
Travel
Probably the main reason why Hawaii will likely never have an NFL team is due to the amount of travel that is required to get to this state.
For most NFL teams the players will travel for the game the day of or the day before. This distance between Hawaii and other NFL teams is simply too far.
For example, a flight from New York City to Hawaii would take players roughly fifteen hours.
This sort of time spent on the plane would be incredibly taxing and would almost certainly affect the player’s ability to play in the coming game.
Additionally, this would make certain teams’ travel schedules much worse than others. Teams in the same conference as the Hawaiin football team would have to travel to play this team every year.
This would bring a whole new level to home-field advantage.
Something most NFL teams would not want to do. The Hawaiin NFL team themself would also be subject to a brutal travel schedule.
These players would have to take a massive flight for every single away game of the season. This would result in a travel schedule for the team that is significantly larger than any other team in the league.
This presents an obvious competitive disadvantage for the team. For these reasons, the distance of a football team in Hawaii from the rest of the teams means an NFL team will likely never play here.
Population
The other issue with a football team in Hawaii is the lack of population on the islands. The largest island in Hawaii is Oahu which has a population of 953,207.
Though this may sound like a lot of people it is actually quite a small number for an NFL franchise. When looking at the cities that host NFL teams you’ll find their populations are generally much higher.
On top of that most NFL teams have fans that drive to the game from the surrounding areas. Since all NFL teams are on the mainland fans can drive from all across the country to watch the game.
With only the other Hawaiin islands nearby not many fans from other areas are going to travel to Hawaii to watch the games.
Even fans who enjoy travelling to away games may find the distance and prices of a flight that long to be too expensive.
Stadiums
The other reason Hawaii might not be able to host an NFL team is due to a lack of a stadium.
In order to have an NFL team, a massive stadium or plans to build on are required.
Nowadays these stadiums can cost over five billion dollars to construct. Hawaii does have some football stadiums including the one used when the NFL hosts pro Bowl games there.
Unfortunately with a capacity of fifty thousand fans, this is not up to the standards of most NFL stadiums.
