By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

When the University of Hawai'i Board of Regents approved a three-year incremental premium ticket pricing plan Friday, it was a milestone in a sometimes contentious on-again, off-again journey through the bureaucracy.

And that might have been the easy part.

For as one UH official conceded, "the tough part will be when people start getting their (renewal) bills. That's when the screams will come."

Indeed, when the statements start showing up in mail boxes next month, some football season-ticket holders will find the surcharge on their tickets has doubled to $100 for 2003 and could go as high as $220 by 2005. Similarly, Rainbow Wahine volleyball prices will go from $40 to $60 this season and could reach as high as $100 by 2005.

It is revenue the Warriors/Rainbow Warriors/Rainbows/Rainbow Wahine have come to desperately covet, especially in light of last fiscal year's $1.43 million deficit and the current shortfall that is expected to run to $1 million or more.

If the current policies, which UH projects will add a combined $400,000 in additional revenue just through these two sports in 2003, had been in place earlier, there would not have been back-to-back deficits. Maybe, UH wouldn't have been left behind in the Western Athletic Conference split, either.

There is no popular time to be asking long-time supporters to reach deeper into their wallets. And right now might be one of the worst of all possible periods, given the prevailing economic climate. But UH is long past the point where it has the luxury of waiting any longer to pick its spot.

Ideally, the move would have and, indeed, should have been made after either UH's 1989 Aloha Bowl or 1992 Holiday Bowl appearances, when season-ticket sales were reaching all-time highs and the Warriors were regularly drawing in excess of 40,000 fans on Saturday nights. Or, even in 1994, when the Stan Sheriff Center opened.

But for a lot of reasons — bureaucracy, politics, a lack of foresight, you name it — nothing got done and UH has spent the intervening years ruing the unfortunately wasted opportunities.

Now that the athletic department has been given the go-ahead to proceed with premium seating, it assumes the responsibility of delivering value for the money. It needs to do what it can to assure a more fan-friendly environment and entertaining experience at its events. It should redouble its efforts to bring in better attractions and not expect fans to pay premium rates for Appalachian State, Eastern Illinois and others in the Division I-AA crowd.

As long as UH is going to ask more from its fans, there also needs to be a realization that more is expected from it, too.