Kickoff time change creates conflict for UH

One of the ways the University of Hawaii has been attempting to boost its sagging bottom line is by encouraging fans who already have a season ticket in one sport to add or retain another one.

For example, if you keep football, one promotion allows you a discount on Rainbow Wahine volleyball season tickets.

All of which held more promise until the Mountain West Conference announced a change in the starting time of the Aug. 30 football season opener against Washington.

The previously listed 2 p.m. kickoff at Aloha Stadium has been moved to 4:30 p.m. to accommodate CBS Sports Network programming.

CBSSN already had secured the UH-UW game, which it announced in April. But then it jumped at the opportunity to add the obviously much-in-demand Northern Arizona-San Diego State game in the 1 p.m. slot, pushing back the UH-Washington contest to make a doubleheader out of it.

This late shift means the Rainbow Wahine match against Arizona State on the second night of the Chevron Rainbow Wahine Invitational, which had been set for 8 p.m. precisely to avoid a conflict with football, now isn’t quite so inviting or doable for the 1,000 or so crossover season-ticket holders.

Now, Wahine coach Dave Shoji says, "I’m not sure what we are going to do. It isn’t just my decision to make."

UH has to figure out whether it wants to play the match at noon after playing a late Friday night match, try to move to another day or just leave it at 8 p.m., none of the options ideal.

This comes after UH had already sacrificed one prime volleyball date the following week, Sept. 6, scheduling St. John’s at noon to avoid conflict with the 4:30 p.m. UH-Oregon State football game on CBSSN.

UH is used to trying to work around potential football/volleyball conflicts but usually in the spring when TV plans first come together. Not at this late date, which makes things more problematic after contracts have been signed and visiting teams’ flights have been booked.

At most MWC schools, these kind of situations matter little. But at UH, where volleyball draws enough to help pay for itself, it is a concern.

If UH was getting some major bucks from the MWC TV contract or reaping a huge TV audience, it might make it more palatable. But it isn’t getting either.

Under the terms of its MWC membership agreement, Hawaii doesn’t get a penny out of the conference TV pot until all 11 other members each top $2.3 million in football TV revenue. (Conference leader Boise State was to get approximately $2.2 million for all TV revenue in 2013-14, not just football, and San Diego State $1.9 million, according to published reports).

Instead, UH is allowed to keep its $2.3 million deal with Oceanic Time Warner Cable. And, of course, pay $650,000 in travel subsidies for football.

Nor does CBSSN pull in the larger viewership numbers of an ESPN or ESPN2.

They used to call these late scheduling dilemmas, in the words of one administrator, "grin and bear it" games.

At UH, it is getting harder to do either.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.