Finally, some promising news has emerged for the financially strapped University of Hawaii athletics department, an asset that has been missing from its toolkit: a measure of control over sales that could provide sorely needed revenue.

The UH Board of Regents on Wednesday gave unanimous approval to terms struck on a retail operation at Ward Centre, one of the newest initiatives aimed at getting the $33 million department to operate in the black.

And the further observation by regents that more steps must be taken to make the most of entrepreneurial opportunities is absolutely correct.

If there are opportunities to forge partnerships or otherwise consolidate more of the UH sports merchandising under the department’s banner, they should be pursued.

However, unless UH Athletics can surmount it, the primary hurdle the fact that a private company owns the right until 2022 to sell logo items at Aloha Stadium would seem to cap ambitions for the foreseeable future. The stadium is the premiere location for such a business.

Still, the Ward Centre enterprise offers a solid starting point down the retail road.

The new store will open July 1 on the Diamond Head side of the center. It will take over the former site of Sedona, a boutique that has moved to an adjacent space. UH also will take over the existing, smaller Rainbowtique outlet in the center, with both outlets rebranded as "H-Zone" stores.

Although clothing and other merchandise with nonsports school logos would still be sold by the UH Auxiliary Services Department, the sports staff is really stepping up its game. The department has a location at the Stan Sheriff Center and a larger presence at Les Murakami Stadium and the Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium, with plans for more online sales as well.

It’s encouraging that enthusiasm for the venture comes from Athletic Director Ben Jay, and it’s reasonable to hope that he can reach back three decades to tap his experience as a senior operations manager at Bloomingdale’s in New York.

The regents have invested a lot of faith in the prospect that Jay can turn things around, so some intense scrutiny would be in order. Less than a year ago, they approved a rescue operation, starting with the UH-Manoa Chancellor’s Office absorbing the accumulated net debt of $13 million.

Last budget year ended June 30 with the department roughly $2 million in the red. Jay said at the time he hoped he could bring the department into solvency by the completion of this fiscal year at the end of June.

Ironically or perhaps significantly the very next day is when the H-Zone stores will open.

There’s no silver bullet here, of course. The surest route to financial recovery for the department lies with its athletes and coaching staff having successful seasons, particularly during football season, when ticket sales revenue is at its highest potential.

But efforts such as these, while somewhat peripheral, should be loudly applauded and supported by the community.