UH athletics budget could use some accounting help

For the 10th time in 12 years the University of Hawaii athletic department expects to end the fiscal year with a deficit.

Spot a trend here?

The wonder would be that anybody expects it to change much while the financial models largely remain the same. 

As Albert Einstein is credited with saying, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results." 

In UH’s case, insanity and insolvency often go hand in hand.

To be sure, winning more games, paying more realistic salaries and buying out fewer deposed coaches and administrators at top dollar is part of the equation. But when you have run at a deficit in years when the football team has also won eight, nine and 10 games, the model UH operates in clearly needs to be addressed on several levels.

Had UH gone to a bowl other than a Bowl Championship Series game in the 2007 postseason, its 2008 financial statement would have shown a $2 million loss.

Plenty of people — from the governor to the two finalists for the UH presidency and those who have come before them — have correctly acknowledged that the athletic department needs help. Help with travel costs, an assist with its stadium situation. …

But so far nary a finger has been lifted for significant change.

When UH kicks off its 2014 football season in 93 days, chances are it will still pay for trash pickup at Aloha Stadium despite the fact that, unlike its brethren in the Mountain West Conference, it receives not a penny from concessions or merchandising. Nor does it share in signage. 

Signage and naming rights alone are worth more than $1.3 million a year. But UH, which is the prime tenant (signage and naming are covered up for the Pro Bowl), does not share in the loot. 

Once upon a time, when the marketing rights were put out to bid, UH inquired if it might be allowed to sell them and share the proceeds with the stadium. It was told a firm "no" by the state, which allows a contractor to take a percentage.

Understand that this is not the fault of stadium manager Scott Chan or the Aloha Stadium Authority, who have endeavored to assist UH within the constraints imposed by their boss, the state. 

The real landlords here are the governor and Legislature, who have it within their powers to rewrite the script. They did it when the NFL was given the sweetheart Pro Bowl deal and can do it for UH.

And, it isn’t just out in Halawa that change is necessary. On the Manoa campus, athletics does not share in parking receipts for the occasions it has baseball, basketball, volleyball and softball events. 

Give UH a fair piece of the action it helps generate — campus parking, Aloha Stadium signage and concessions — and look at it as less of a handout and more of a belated acknowledgement of what it brings to the cash register. This is not a new concept, just one that has yet to receive its due. 

Do this and it might help start a trend in UH athletics — black ink and more competitive teams.

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