By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

The University of Hawai'i athletic department is running approximately $1 million in the red this fiscal year, and the upper campus, which has agreed to help with a bailout, isn't sure where the money is going to be found.

But as tough as things are, that might not be the scariest part for the Rainbows.

Behind the brave game faces in Manoa, what has to be alarming, if you are a UH follower, is that back-to-back years of shortfalls have occurred during one of the most decorated winning periods in the school's athletic history.

The men's basketball team has been to milestone back-to-back NCAA Tournaments. The football team has gone a combined 19-7. Men's volleyball won its only national championship, and Rainbow Wahine volleyball is coming off a final four appearance.

Yet, UH is staring down a cumulative $2.5 million shortfall for the just-past and current fiscal years. If the red ink is ankle-deep when the only four sports — men's basketball, football, men's volleyball and Wahine volleyball — that make money are all riding high, what happens if, heaven forbid, one or more of them take a pratfall?

It is a nightmarish scenario that needs to inspire the powers, from Bachman Hall to the Quarry, to come up with a plan that will keep athletics in the black, and for the future, eliminating the necessity of going hat in hand to the upper campus again.

In the past, UH has dipped into its so-called "rainy day" fund to make up the deficits, but the last withdrawal lowered the reserve to less than $50,000.

Manoa Chancellor Peter Englert said the administration is willing to cover the current deficit, the first time in UH's Division I-A tenure the administration has had to write a check to cover a major athletic department shortfall. That's no small favor in these austere times, when the university is counting every nickel, and it is a gesture the athletic department needs to take to heart.

While it has been standard policy at some schools for the president to annually write a check at the end of the year to bail out the athletic department, that is a luxury UH doesn't have in the current economic climate, and shouldn't count on past this year if it is to remain true to its primary mission of education.

Every dollar that goes to shoring up athletic deficits is one fewer than can be spent on Hamilton Library, student programs, faculty salaries, or too many other areas of pressing need.

Though the hope is that there will be packed stadiums and sold-out arenas to fill future coffers, the reality is that UH might not lack for financial challenges in the future. Next year there is one fewer home football game, and there are contract extensions to be worked out for June Jones and Dave Shoji, who both are due increases. There are more administrators to be hired, gender equity issues to be dealt with and, sometime soon, one more men's sport needs to be added to meet Division I-A requirements.

The plans call for premium seating, enhanced fund-raising, pay-per-view and elements to fortify the bottom line.

With all that is potentially riding on it, the plans need to work.