Ferd Lewis: There is no way around UH’s travel subsidies

THE most formidable struggle facing the University of Hawaii in the Mountain West or Big West conferences this year likely won’t be what takes place on the fields and courts or in the pools.

It figures to come in the board rooms (virtual or otherwise) as UH asks its peers to, pretty please, consider rolling back nearly a decade of burdensome travel subsidies.

With the athletic department facing a severe financial crunch beyond COVID-19 and forecasting deficits in the $4 million-plus range through at least 2025, UH President David Lassner in September convened a 14-member Strategic Visioning Committee to help come up with solutions.

Like 90% or more of its Division I peers, UH athletics requires financial support from the state, university and students to help fund its operations.

“UH Manoa alone cannot support the program as-is and must take action to bring revenues and expenses into alignment,” Lassner said in announcing the “blue ribbon” panel.

The committee recommended keeping the school’s current 21-team lineup and staying with the present conference structure. This month UH outlined a list of the recommendations to the Board of Regents that included an alternative retirement plan for coaches, a “Save Athletics” fundraising initiative, marketing UH events to foreign tourists, increasing external use of UH facilities such as a tennis club on campus and phasing out travel subsidies for visiting conference members.

Getting rid of the onerous travel subsidies could shave as much as 25% of the projected deficits since UH currently pays approximately $1.2 million annually funding travel for conference opponents to come here as part of its 2012 agreements to join the Mountain West and Big West.

When UH’s longest-running conference home, the Western Athletic Conference, was ripped apart by realignment defections a decade ago, the Rainbow Wahine and Rainbow Warriors were left with limited membership options.

The MWC agreed to take UH as a football-only member but required travel subsides. The Big West took most other UH sports teams but also wanted so-called “travel cost sharing.”

It was a curious euphemism since nobody “shares” the cost of UH’s travel to the continent.

In the MWC, UH pays visiting football teams $150,000-$175,000 each depending on which time zone they come from. In the Big West it pays roughly $500 per visiting team member in all sports. For example, in women’s basketball UH funds travel for 21 members and 19 for men’s basketball.

In the Big West, at least, teams that entered the league after UH, such as UC San Diego and Cal State Bakersfield, are responsible for their own travel to Hawaii. But in the MWC, UH is required to pick up the tab even for those who have followed them into the league such as San Jose and Utah State or returned like Boise State and San Diego State.

The problems inherent in getting opponents to consider eliminating or even trimming subsides are several fold. UH’s peers, who are often just as financially strapped, if not more so, are used to the subsidies and loathe to give them back, especially in the pandemic. You imagine a lot of 11-1 votes in the MWC and a 9-1 tallies in the Big West.

When UC San Diego declined to come on a recent basketball trip speculation was that finances may have played a part in the decision.

And, UH is without significant leverage for change. Few other leagues in the west will consider UH even with travel subsidies.

The advisory committee gave UH some promising suggestions, but when it comes to eliminating travel subsidies, a cudgel might have come in handy.

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