UH proposal to host volleyball playoffs rejected
By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer
The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation has rejected a proposal to allow the University of Hawai'i to serve as the designated host for this year's men's volleyball playoffs.
The MPSF will announce the decision Friday, although it was learned that the three-member MPSF tournament committee rejected UH's bid last week.
"We're disappointed," said UH athletic director Hugh Yoshida, who was notified by e-mail yesterday morning.
"This is the best site in America to watch volleyball," said KFVE president John Fink, who arranged to televise the playoffs nationally if they were held in Hawai'i. "It's disappointing (the final two rounds) could be held in some gym where 500 fans will show up, and most of them will be Hawai'i fans, anyway."
Having UH, which led the nation in attendance last season, serve as automatic host "would have been a tribute to the best fans in the country," Fink added. "It's hard to imagine the powers-that-be don't see that this is the best possible venue to showcase a sport that is struggling in every place but Hawai'i."
The MPSF will retain last year's format, in which eight of the 12 conference teams qualify for the playoffs, with the highest remaining seed after the quarterfinals serving as host to both the semifinals and championship match. The MPSF playoff winner earns an automatic berth in the final four.
Last May, 11 MPSF coaches recommended that UH serve as host to the final three rounds of the 2002 league playoffs. UCLA coach Al Scates did not attend the meeting.
According to the recommendation, all 12 MPSF teams would qualify for the postseason tournament. The winners of the play-in matches would advance to the quarterfinals at the Stan Sheriff Center. As a reward for serving as host, UH would receive an automatic berth in the quarterfinals, no matter where the Warriors placed in the final regular-season standings.
But one school objected, and the matter was forwarded to the MPSF.
In its proposal, UH guaranteed to sell at least 3,000 tournament tickets (priced at $35 each), with 75 percent of the profits turned over to the MPSF. In addition, UH promised to help defray the cost of travel and lodging for the seven visiting teams.
Still, the MPSF said the proposal would be considered only if UH could provide regional television coverage of the tournament's final two rounds.
Fink, whose station owns the television rights to UH sports, reached an agreement in which CNN/Sports Illustrated, which is available in 20 million households across the country, would televise two quarterfinal matches, both semifinals and the championship match, even if the Warriors were eliminated early. Fink said KFVE would pay for the production costs.
But in an e-mail to Yoshida, MPSF executive director Al Beaird said the committee decided there were too many questions with UH's bid, and the matter will be tabled until next year.
Yoshida said he believed UH's bid was solid, offering both money and exposure.
"What's in store for men's volleyball?" Yoshida said. "If it's exposure, we could broadcast (the tournament) nationally. It would add some interest to men's volleyball. I guess they thought that wasn't as significant as we thought it was."
• UH is fourth: Despite losing to UCLA in the final of the Outrigger Hotels Invitational, the Warriors (3-2) advanced one spot, to fourth, in this week's USA Today/American Volleyball Coaches Association poll.
UCLA (5-1) is No. 1, followed by Stanford (3-1) and Pepperdine (6-2). Brigham Young (3-2), last year's national champion, is fifth, earning one first-place vote. Last week's No. 1 team, Penn State (2-2) dropped to No. 7 after losing to UH and UCLA in the Outrigger tournament.
