Without sponsorship assistance, the University of Hawaii estimates it would cost $500,000 to $600,000 for the Warriors to host a regular-season football game in Japan.

UH athletic director Jim Donovan returned this week from Osaka, where he met with officials at the Kyocera Dome and Kansai American Football Coaches Association about playing a game as early as 2014. Donovan and head coach Greg McMackin first met with officials there in 2009, and the most recent meeting was tied in with UH’s goodwill basketball tour of Asia.

"For us to rent the stadium, get ourselves there, take care of the hotels and bring in another team, we’re probably looking at, in the ballpark of $500,000 to $600,000 for a game like this if nothing is underwritten," Donovan said.

But Donovan said he is hopeful of securing some sponsors for what would likely be a four-day trip. He already has some potential partners in mind.

"We want to limit our (exposure), but we’re not really trying to make a profit off this as much as we are trying to build a relationship in Japan," Donovan said. "We’d look at it as an investment in the future."

Donovan said an opponent would likely come from the Mountain West Conference, which UH will join in 2012, or the Pac-12 due to travel time and costs. UH is contracted to play visiting MWC teams $150,000-$175,000 each for travel to Hawaii beginning with the 2012 season as a condition of conference membership.