In late December, when the NFL confirmed plans to move the 2010 Pro Bowl to Miami, breaking a string of 30 consecutive years in Ho-nolulu, the soon-to-be host city reacted with a collective yawn.

The Miami Herald required but eight paragraphs to certify the news to an apparently underwhelmed populace. Just six people posted on-line comments to the story, not all of them thrilled by the game's impending return.

And small wonder. Miami is, according to reports, getting the Pro Bowl as a late throw-in after anteing up for its 10th Super Bowl, which the Pro Bowl will precede by a week. In Miami, the Pro Bowl is the set of floor mats that come at no additional cost when you buy the Hummer.

Meanwhile, on these shores the Pro Bowl is the prize. The game's future is the stuff of headlines and passionate debate. Compelled by public opinion and political pressure, the Hawai'i Tourism Authority has scheduled what is officially termed a "special board meeting" for this morning at the Hawai'i Convention Center, largely to discuss its rejection of a recent NFL proposal.

So, yes, you could say the Pro Bowl is kind of a big deal here, which is why it will be a surprise if the HTA doesn't belatedly accept the NFL's terms to keep the game here in 2011 and 2012 and move toward future years.

Unofficially, today's meeting is a mulligan of sorts, a chance for a do-over of the panel's vote of last month to reject the NFL's terms.

It isn't the game itself so much — after all, who knows or cares what the final score was for the last one — but what it means. To be sure, it is an opportunity to see pro football, albeit at three-quarter speed in an exhibition game, for a place without an NFL franchise. More than that it is a vivid TV ad in the dead of winter and demonstrated tourist lure for an economy that needs both even in the best of times.

The HTA was correct to send back the NFL's original proposal that did not specify which two years in four that Hawai'i would get the Pro Bowl. It made a point and got the game in years that would be sooner rather than later.

But rejecting the second offer was ill-advised. Now, with this do-over opportunity, it is time for the HTA to take the current terms on the table and build for the future.

Miami, which last had the Pro Bowl in 1975, had few regrets about the game's departure and held no meetings, special or otherwise, to summon back an event that drew a measly 26,484.

Here, with no Super Bowls to fall back on, that's a luxury we can ill-afford at the moment.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.