Before the first volleyball is served or football kicked off this season, the University of Hawaii is already waging fierce competition.

With itself.

The battleground is shirts, hats and other newly minted athletic logowear being sold at both the campus bookstore and the newly created H-Zone.

The skirmish came as a surprise to the Board of Regents Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics, which expressed its dismay Monday.

"My recollection is that it had all been discussed and worked out and the H-Zone was the only place you could buy it, other than at Aloha Stadium," said committee chairman Jeff Portnoy.

"I think we’ve been thrown a bit of a curve — this is something we’re going to have to talk about internally," said athletic director Ben Jay.

The H-Zone, which operates out of the former RainbowTique outlet at the Stan Sheriff Center, at a Ward Centre location and online, opened its doors July 1 as a way for the financially pinched athletic department to raise money for scholarships and operations.

Officials had told regents in April the athletic department would have exclusivity in the potentially lucrative sales.

The athletic department projected a $500,000 profit at the end of the current fiscal year, June 30, 2015.

But on Monday, Jay said head-to-head competition with the bookstore has the H-Zone operation "about breaking even," though he hoped it would pick up when volleyball and football get underway.

In response to questions, Deborah Huebler, director of Campus Services, wrote in an email, "There was a memorandum of understanding that was signed for the transfer of operations from Campus Services to Athletics regarding the ‘Commercial Insignia Merchandise Division,’ or basically, the RainbowTique operations. There was no written agreement between Campus Services and Athletics for the University Bookstores to discontinue sale of any type of merchandise. There was no verbal agreement between Campus Services and Athletics for the University Bookstores to discontinue sales of any type of merchandise."

Huebler wrote, "The UH Manoa Bookstore does have a verbal agreement with Athletics that it will not sell the Under Armour ‘coaches and players team’ merchandise for football — it was agreed that line would be exclusive to H-Zone."

She said they also agreed to make sure there would be no duplicate designs/graphics on merchandise.

"So we were clear with our discussions with Athletics, and they understood, that the bookstore would continue to sell H logo athletics-related merchandise but work with them to avoid duplication."

Portnoy said the bookstore has a marketing agreement with the UH Alumni Association and will have the exclusive rights to sell merchandise at UH’s football alumni function at the Nov. 15 game in San Jose, Calif.

"I don’t understand this," Portnoy said. "But this is so emblematic of too many things around (UH)."

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