UH football
Charter planes to Reno to cost UH $30,000 extra
• Ailing Iosua vows to play against Nevada
By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer
Saturday's rescheduled Western Athletic Conference football game will come at a price for the University Hawai'i.
It will cost the Warriors an additional $30,000 to charter a flight to and from Reno, Nev., for this week's game against Nevada.
UH expected to pay about $50,000 in commercial airfare for its 98-member travel party. But when the game, originally scheduled for last Saturday, was postponed in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington D.C., the Warriors scrambled for air transportation.
At first, UH athletic director Hugh Yoshida booked a charter flight to Reno, and tickets on two return flights to Honolulu.
But UH coach June Jones contacted Aloha Airlines and, after two days of talks, an agreement was reached in which the Warriors could travel roundtrip by charter. UH will leave Thursday morning and return Sunday morning.
UH associate athletic director Jim Donovan said the charter flights will cost $80,000, "but it's worth the extra money for the convenience and safety."
Aloha Airlines spokesman Stu Glauberman said the Warriors will travel on a Boeing 737-700, one of five such airplanes the airline uses on its West Coast routes. Each Boeing 737-700 has 12 seats in first class and 112 in coach.
"It is not an extra plane, by any means, but if we have a plane available, we will use it as a charter," Glauberman said.
The Montana football team chartered an Aloha Airlines airplane for its game against UH on Sept. 8.
Securing transportation proved to be nearly as difficult as finalizing Saturday's game in Reno.
Nevada was scheduled to play at San Jose State on Saturday. But because UH and Nevada do not have any common open dates through the Dec. 1 end of college football's regular season, and Nevada and San Jose State both have byes on Nov. 10, the WAC decided to engineer a switch. The trouble was San Jose State balked at the move, arguing that by vacating Saturday, the Spartans would not play their first home game until Oct. 13.
By not playing this weekend, UH would have a three-week break from its last game on Sept. 8 to the Sept. 29 game against Rice, and Nevada would not play its first home game until Oct. 6.
Playing the UH-Nevada game on Dec. 8, as suggested by San Jose State, was not an option, WAC commissioner Karl Benson said. He added that playing on Dec. 8 would virtually end any bowl opportunities for Nevada and UH.
San Jose State appealed to the WAC Board of Directors, the presidents of the 10 WAC schools. After a 15-minute conference call yesterday, Benson announced the UH-Nevada game was rescheduled for Saturday, adding that playing on that day maintains "the integrity of the WAC schedule" and "minimizes the disruption" to the league.
During the meeting, San Jose State President Robert Caret argued that shuffling the schedule would have an adverse impact on his football program and its followers.
UH President Evan Dobelle said he rejected the premise of Caret's argument. While being sympathetic to Caret's situation, Dobelle reminded the board that UH earlier had agreed to switch the dates of two games to accommodate the league's agreement with the ESPN cable network.
When UH was "adversely affected twice," Dobelle said, "I certainly didn't go running to the other presidents."
Caret's request to have UH and Nevada abstain from voting on the matter was rejected. Caret again was rejected after suggesting that UH, Nevada and San Jose State not vote.
Finally, when Caret made a motion to not have San Jose State vacate Saturday, it was not seconded, effectively ending San Jose State's appeal.
Later, the board determined that San Jose State will not suffer a substantial financial hardship from the switch and, thus, will not receive compensation from the league, UH or Nevada.
"Unfortunately, (this) has put me in a no-win situation, but in the best interest of the league, this was the most prudent decision," Benson said.
Said San Jose State coach Fitz Hill: "It's very disheartening."
But Hill, who served in Desert Storm, said, "I've been a military guy. I understand orders coming down. . . . Am I happy about it? No. . . . But I'm not going to sit here and mope."
