Hawaii teams score mainland charter flights to tourneys

It turns out that some University of Hawaii sports teams can get charter flights to the mainland after all.

All they have to do is earn bids to the NCAA basketball tournaments.

Both the Rainbow Wahine and Rainbow Warrior basketball teams are chartering to the site of their first-round games this week.

The men left Los Angeles on Tuesday for Spokane, Wash., where they will play California on Friday. The women Tuesday were awaiting confirmation that they will leave Honolulu today on a Sun Country 767 for Los Angeles, where they will play UCLA on Saturday.

Between the flights, officials say, UH will be represented by an official traveling party totaling about 150 people, including players, coaches, trainers, band members, cheerleaders, academic counselors and administrators.

All of it is paid for by the NCAA and the Big West Conference, UH said.

Basketball TV rights are the biggest source of revenue for the NCAA, which has a 14-year, $10.8 billion agreement with Turner Broadcasting and CBS Sports for the Division I Men’s Basketball Championship.

UH also is entitled to up to $25,000 for each of its men’s and women’s teams from the Big West.

The NCAA sets squad and travel party limits — for example up to 29 band members per site in men’s and women’s basketball and 75 people overall — and pays the airfare. It awards each member $130 in per diem, which is meant to cover hotel and food.

Per diem goes up to $225 for teams in the men’s and women’s final fours.

The NCAA isn’t as generous in most of its other championships. Only in the Football Championship Subdivision are team and travel party sizes more than 40.

Schools may send band and cheer squad members to other national championships but must pick up the tab. That’s why UH band members fund raised to attend the women’s volleyball elite eight in Des Moines, Iowa, in December, UH said.

The NCAA, through its contracted travel agency, books the flights and special approval is required for charters. “I think the last-minute difficulty in getting commercial flights for us is why we were able to get charters,” athletic director David Matlin said.

The UH football team rarely charters over the Pacific Ocean due to cost and the school’s other teams do not at all. That has been a bone of contention among coaches since UH is required to subsidize travel to and from Hawaii for conference opponents as a stipulation of membership but must pay for its own transportation.

Although the seating capacity for a 767 is listed at 261-290 and UH expects to take 139 from Honolulu, some of whom will go on to Spokane, the NCAA does not permit schools to sell remaining seats on the aircraft.

The NCAA sternly counsels, “Any institution which travels by charter is expressly prohibited from advertising the sale of seats on that charter in any form” and warns, “any charter that is found to have been advertised will be canceled.”

Per their contracts, coaches Laura Beeman and Eran Ganot are entitled to have a spouse or domestic partner and child travel to the NCAA tournaments, with expenses to be paid by the UH Foundation or postseason sponsor.