UH offers students free tickets for football opener

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Writer

In an effort to court more of a campus following, the University of Hawai'i will offer free tickets to its students for the Aug. 30 football season opener against Appalachian State, athletic director Herman Frazier said.

"I'll make Appalachian State free for them," Frazier said. "We'll see what kind of response we get (and) after that game, then we'll look at some other things during the course of the year. We'll also do some things as we go towards basketball season and volleyball season."

In recent years UH has given away thousands of free tickets to UH students during homecoming week. Hundreds of free men's basketball and men's volleyball tickets also were distributed to students in the past academic year.

"Wherever we can do things for students, we'll continue to do that as well," Frazier said. "I mean, I look at our student population and I look at our faculty and staff and for a lot of these events we don't get large numbers from them. We have to figure out how to lure them to contests so they can be part of it."

UH-Manoa spring enrollment was 17,858.

Frazier also said the athletic department will look into some transportation options that might help students get to games at Aloha Stadium.

Frazier has said: "We will look at everything that is possible but, by the same token, you have to pay for the program as well. We will try to do some things for a happier atmosphere. We have to figure out what the happy medium is for those paying customers."

At Arizona State, where he had worked for 20 years, Frazier said the athletic department received a $50,000 annual allocation from the student body. At UH, Frazier said, the athletic department receives no student money.

"We're OK with that for now because the university has been stepping forward to help us this year," Frazier said. "As we get our feet firmly planted and figure everything out, we'll go from there."