UH trying to mind its business
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Columnist
Just in case there were any lingering doubts about what athletics is becoming at the University of Hawai'i, the Board of Regents is poised this week to certify it as a business.
When regents sign off on two athletic department proposals — a graduated premium ticket package and a reorganized master booster organization to peddle tickets and parking — Rainbow/Warrior/Rainbow Warrior/Rainbow Wahine athletics will effectively become UH Sports Inc.
For most of its existence, UH athletics has operated as something of a comfortable public trust. You need not have graduated from Manoa nor even attended a class there to claim a slice of ownership in the state's team.
Nor did it take a commitment to an escalating investment. Free TV and modestly priced tickets nurtured the idea of grassroots ownership available to most.
A succession of administrations had been content to see the lower campus run more like a mom 'n' pop operation than a bottom-line enterprise, even as the number of sports rose to 19 and the budget climbed to $16 million.
That has been both the charm and the bane of the place. Refreshingly at first, UH didn't get caught up in what has become known as the "Athletic Arms Race." It didn't engage in a constant coaching carousel nor aim for the moon. But neither did it pay attention to the handwriting on the wall nor take necessary steps to keep pace with its competition.
Only after the high of an 11-2 Holiday Bowl campaign and Top 20 ranking quickly gave way to an 0-12 football nightmare was there an impetus for change. Only after Bachman Hall ordered the athletic department to pay its own way and eight members of the old-Western Athletic Conference bolted the alliance, leaving UH behind, was athletics in Manoa jolted into reinventing itself.
What it lacked in foresight, it has sought to make up for in enterprise. Now, the changes are coming at a dizzying pace: logo branding, sponsor signage, pay-per-view, premium seating, booster realignment ...
Most of which are necessary to maintain a Division I presence, and all of which are going to take some getting used to. Especially for a couple generations of fans, many now on fixed incomes, who were raised on the idea that season tickets are lifetime entitlements of those who have invested with the program through decades of thick and thin.
For better or worse, a commitment to a premium seating plan would be the surest sign yet that things are changing at UH, where athletics now mean business.
