UH ranks low in athletic department subsidies

Outgoing Manoa Chancellor Virginia S. Hinshaw said she believes “that increased financial support for University of Hawaii Manoa athletics is both needed and justified” in the wake of a study showing its teams are being subsidized at a lower rate than those they will compete against in the Mountain West and Big West conferences.

Between 2006 and 2011, 32.6 percent of the UH athletic department’s more than $30 million in annual expenses were subsidized by the state, school or students, according to USA Today figures.

Of the 12 schools either currently competing in the Mountain West or that will be there in 2013, UH ranks 10th in subsidies, according to the newspaper’s data. Among 10 schools in the Big West or that will be there in 2013, UH is last.

UH leaves the Western Athletic Conference to join the MWC in football and Big West in most other sports July 1.

Hinshaw said in a statement, “UH Manoa athletics has fiscal challenges that other universities don’t face, such as the costs for long-distance travel and the lack of football stadium revenues.”

Hinshaw said, “Over the last five years, UH Manoa has invested increased resources in athletic scholarships and improvement of athletic facilities. The Legislature this session also approved $12.5 million for our continuing effort to upgrade our athletic facilities. Unfortunately there are limits to our university’s ability to invest in athletics when there are so many other needs throughout the UH Manoa campus for academic programs, financial aid, and repairs and maintenance.”

UH President M.R.C. Greenwood said, “The UH Warrior football team is, to all intents and purposes, Hawaii’s team and as such means a great deal to our residents. We feel keenly the need to ensure that the athletics department has sufficient resources to do what’s asked of it and at the same time be good stewards of scarce resources provided by the state and our students.”

In the Big West, where only two schools have football programs, both on the Football Championship Subdivision level, most members have double the subsidies UH receives.

Greenwood said, “We do factor in what our peers are doing in this area, both for competitive reasons and to help us establish appropriate expectations for our programs. We’ll continue to try and strike the right balance between resources for academics, programs and athletics.”