Posted on: Friday, April 19, 2002

UH, Long Beach State playoff match on TV

Advertiser Staff

Tomorrow's playoff volleyball match between host Hawai'i and Long Beach State will be televised live on K5, UH athletic director Hugh Yoshida announced yesterday.

K5, which owns the television rights to UH regular-season events, and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, which administers the eight-team postseason tournament, reached an agreement to televise the match. The deal was contingent on UH's approval.

Yoshida had wanted to gauge ticket sales before deciding whether to lift the television blackout locally. Yoshida estimated UH needed to sell 7,000 tickets to break even. Each host school is entitled to 15 percent of the gross, with the rest pooled to help pay for travel and other expenses for MPSF teams.

Even though UH sold 4,500 tickets as of yesterday morning, "we decided to televise the playoff match," Yoshida said. "We're still encouraging our fans to come to the match."

As for a possible revenue shortfall — it costs up to $10,000 to stage a volleyball match in the Stan Sheriff Center — Yoshida said, "We'll address that issue down the road. We need to (show the match) for the fans who can't attend."