Posted on: Thursday, May 8, 2003

Donors to help pay for Jones' contract

By Stephen Tsai and Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Writers

University of Hawai'i athletic director Herman Frazier says he is confident he can raise enough money from private donations to help pay for football coach June Jones' next contract.

"Money, at this point, is not an issue," Frazier told The Advertiser.

Frazier also said money from the recently approved increase in premium-seating fees for football and potential revenue from any new lease plan with Aloha Stadium would not be used to pay for Jones' salary increase.

"No, not at all," Frazier said. "All of that would go to our regular general budget."

Jones has eight months remaining on a five-year contract he signed in January 1999. He earns $320,000 annually, with $220,000 guaranteed by the university and Na Koa football booster club.

Frazier and Jones' agent, Leigh Steinberg, are negotiating a new contract, not an extension, meaning any raise approved by the Board of Regents would go into effect immediately.

"To be honest, we really didn't start talking about June's contract until the end of January," Frazier said. "I sat down with June at the end of the football season."

Frazier remained vague on the negotiations, although he denied reports he was under a gag order from UH president Evan Dobelle.

Frazier said a new contract will be finalized "in due time." When pressed for a definition of "due time," Frazier said, "It would be before that contract runs out, I would suspect. But he has a contract."

He added: "We've never boxed ourselves into a (signing) date. I think it's the most-asked (question) only because people knew he was going into the last year of his contract."

For the next contract, Jones has said, he expects most of the salary above his base pay of $220,000 to be raised through private donations. Frazier said the response from the private sector has been "very favorable."

In January, Dobelle said Jones should be paid in the 80 percentile nationally, a goal the UH president has set for all non-union employees. That figure equates to an annual package of $1 million.

Since then, Dobelle has left negotiations to Frazier. Steinberg and Jones have declined to publicly name an asking price, although Steinberg has said creative measures, such as a low-interest loan, could be part of the contract.