McClain fine with subsidizing athletics

By Stephen Tsai and Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Writers

Acting University of Hawai'i president David McClain said he is "not troubled" by the school subsidizing the athletic department until it can reach self-sufficiency.

McClain

"I'm not troubled by subsidizing athletics in the following sense," McClain said. "We subsidize all the education we provide. Manoa students pay approximately 30 percent of the cost of their education. Community colleges, 15 percent of their education."

McClain said, "It is a case that we don't have the revenue streams for these sports up to the $19 million to $20 million level now. Herman (Frazier, the athletic director) has put together a plan that will get us to that level over the next four to five years."

Athletics has received approximately $1.4 million annually in general funds, $480,000 of which goes for maintenance of the lower campus, where athletic facilities are located. But last year Manoa Chancellor Peter Englert granted the athletic department a no-interest $1 million loan that is to be repaid over three years to cover a $2.4 million budget deficit. Last month, Englert said an additional loan would be extended to help cover a $1.48 million deficit.

McClain told The Advertiser, "It is really the Manoa chancellor's call how he allocates his share of the general funds."

"I'm OK with the timetable," and the five-year plan for self-sufficiency," McClain said. "I thought it was an aggressive but a well-considered plan by one of the more sophisticated athletic directors in the country."

McClain said research indicates, "if you look at Division I-A athletics, probably 20 to 40 succeed in making athletics be a tub on its own bottom."

He said UH "is trying very hard to do that. At the present time we're not quite there."

Reach Stephen Tsai at stsai@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8051 and Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.