UH athletics faces deficit for third straight year

By Stephen Tsai and Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Writers

The University of Hawai'i-Manoa athletic department is projected to finish in the red for the third consecutive fiscal year, Chancellor Peter Englert said yesterday.

ENGLERT

Englert said he doesn't yet "know the magnitude (of the deficit), but again the rule will be that I will credit it to the athletics department, but I'll not bail them out."

That means for the second consecutive year, the athletic department might require a loan from Englert's office to cover the deficit on expenditures that could reach $18 million.

Last year, the athletic department received a $1 million loan after running a $1.4 million deficit. The previous year, a $1.43 million deficit was retired by tapping the so-called "rainy-day fund," a reserve account made up from past surpluses generated by the athletic department.

Of this latest deficit, Englert said athletic department officials "have to come up until they don't have any resources any more, and then I'll have to make sure that I can provide them with loans from resources that I have available to me. They'll have to pay it back."

Englert said he wasn't immediately able to say how much of last year's loan has been repaid. "I'll have to check where they are on that," he said.

At the time of last year's loan, athletic director Herman Frazier said he believed his department could return to self-sufficiency for this fiscal year. "We just have to get through (fiscal year 2002-'03)," Frazier had said. "This is just a pivotal year for us to get through."

A football schedule that featured one fewer home game in 2003 and stagnant ticket sales in several sports apparently are contributing to the projected deficit.

Coaches in several sports have said they are operating under the same budgets as the 2002-'03 fiscal year.

For the coming football season, the athletic department increased the premium fee — the amount charged above the face value of a season ticket — by $25, to $125 for some of the best seats at Aloha Stadium.

"Once the increase in ticket prices kick in and progressively grow while attendance not drop, I think we'll have a fair chance of balancing the books in the future," Englert said.

The athletic department receives approximately $1.4 million in state money, $480,000 of which goes for maintenance of the lower campus, where athletic facilities are located.

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