Posted on: Wednesday, October 20, 2004
Spartans try to win games, fans
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist
If you are the University of Hawai'i, the concern about San Jose State's football team shouldn't just be that the Spartans are first in the Western Athletic Conference in pass defense this season.
What's scary about the Spartans doesn't only come from them having the most productive special teams unit in the conference.
No, the concern about the Spartans, who are Saturday's homecoming opponent and one of UH's best geographic fits, is whether they are even going to be around much longer.
San Jose State has a proud 110-year past and has been on UH's schedule since 1936, a series that predates most opponents the Warriors will play. But caught in a squeeze between the difficulty of winning games and paying bills, the chances of the Spartans lasting many more seasons dwarf even the 22›-point odds the Las Vegas line says they face here.
The Spartans, who are 2-3 this season and last among 117 Division I-A schools in average home attendance at 7,439 per game, have struggled both on the field and at the box office. Try as they might, the Spartans have had just one winning season in the last 11 years and a dwindling fan base.
Athletics, in general, and football, in particular, have been hard pressed to support themselves at San Jose State, which, in the face of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's hefty budget cuts, have the faculty and others demanding that football either pay its own way or fold the tent.
The Spartans have an athletic budget of $11.7 million, nearly 60 percent of which is underwritten by state funds. Football, which spends $3.3 million, brings in only $2.8 million, prompting critics to suggest the money would be better spent on academics. For the expenditures on football, they say, more classes and programs could be kept.
In an effort to lure an average of 15,000 fans, which is where the NCAA wants to set the minimum for I-A standards, the Spartans have a program offering students free tickets and instant prize drawings to pump up attendance. The big promotional effort for the home opener attracted fewer than 11,000 fans. The shootout 70-63 victory over Rice drew but 4,093.
Sadly, the fate that awaits San Jose State is likely to be the same that has befallen other California State University schools, Long Beach State and Cal State Fullerton, which have both dropped football since 1990. Only three of the 23 CSU campuses still compete in I-A football — Fresno, San Diego and San Jose — and in the current financial climate, the prospects of the Spartans hanging on aren't encouraging.
For UH, which counts the Spartans among its closest and most enduring opponents, that would be a significant loss for more reasons than the fact the Warriors have won the last three meetings.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.
