What is a winning University of Hawaii football team worth?

And would you pay for it?

Jeff Portnoy, UH regent, attorney and UH basketball commentator, recently mulled that over in a blog in this paper.

As Portnoy now argued in a recent interview: "If you accept that premise that we have UH sports that are of statewide interest, then it needs and deserves and requires statewide support. And that is in the form of tax dollars and legislative grants."

Today, the UH-Manoa athletics program is more than $3 million in the hole. The bill is going to grow because UH athletics expenses are expected to grow rapidly when it is forced to increase support for student athletes, Portnoy said.

There is a UH request for $3 million to prop up the athletics fund, but Portnoy is looking for something permanent.

"The reality is football is the one program that consistently makes money for UH. The problem is it does not make enough money. The idea that football is going to go away is not realistic. The reality is that we need to find the money," Portnoy said.

What is one man’s reality is another woman’s decision.

State Rep. Sylvia Luke, chairwoman of the House Finance Committee, explained that UH autonomy means that it is up to UH regents and executives to pay for football if they want football.

"We took politics out of the university and gave them autonomy. It cannot be, when it is convenient for the university to bring politics back in to fund football," Luke said in an interview.

To bring in the politicians means UH gives up its autonomy. UH gets to run its own show because voters decided in favor of a state constitutional amendment giving UH autonomy.

Asked about the situation early this month, Gov. David Ige explained that he and the Legislature decide how much money UH gets and then UH figures out how to spend it.

"The university needs to decide how much it wants to spend on athletics," said Ige.

Luke agreed with Portnoy that UH sports is of statewide interest and when it comes to cheering for the ‘Bows, we are all in it together.

"When UH football does well, everyone feels good," said Luke. Even an exciting basketball team makes attendance jump, she added.

Portnoy conceded that UH sports is bigger that just interested students. In fact, Portnoy in his blog worried that students alone would not save the football team.

"I believe that if you polled the students and the faculty as to whether they care if the university maintains a football program, the answer will be ‘no.’ You can see evidence of that in student attendance and the debate over the modest $50 student fee," Portnoy wrote.

Perhaps the solution is for UH to get its Shidler School of Business on the case. UH could take a page from the Green Bay Packers, which is the only nonprofit, community-owned NFL team in the country.

The team back in 1923 started selling shares in the team for a couple of dollars. It now costs $250 a share; no one can own a controlling interest; it pays no dividends; and cannot be resold.

This could be the new model for UH sports.

If you really bleed Green and White, how much stock do you want?

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.