While it remains to be seen how the University of Hawaii will do on the field in its football season opener Thursday, it is bracing for a struggle at the box office.
A confluence of factors, including a rare Thursday night game, slow ticket sales, free TV and high overhead likely means a narrow profit from what has traditionally been one of the financially struggling athletic program’s biggest paydays of the year.
UH officials are hoping for a turnout in the low 20,000s for the nonconference game against Colorado, which would still be the smallest of the 33 season openers at Aloha Stadium.
Coming off a 4-9 finish in 2014, season ticket sales are running at about 15,000, the lowest in more than 30 years, and individual sales have been described as “slow,” resulting in 20,513 tickets distributed as of late Tuesday afternoon, officials said.
UH calculates it has taken in $608,975 in direct revenue for the game, including premium seat fees. Direct expenses include $500,000 for Colorado’s contracted guarantee and a projection of about $80,000 for stadium operational expenses.
The game, which was originally contracted for Saturday night, was switched to Thursday to accommodate a request by CU after plans to play the game in Australia failed to materialize. Both the Buffaloes and UH are scheduled to play 13 games in as many weeks without the benefit of an open date.
Ben Jay, who made the switch while athletic director, said it would also give the Rainbow Warriors more time before their next game, Sept. 12 at Ohio State.
Subsequently the CBS Sports Network picked up the game, which is available locally on many Oceanic Time Warner (channels 247/1247) and Hawaiian Telecom (83/1083) cable packages. Since CBS is a Mountain West Conference TV partner, UH does not directly share in rights fees, though it keeps local TV rights fees.
UH officials have estimated the date change, 7 p.m. kickoff and TV the night before the final work and school day before the Labor Day weekend, could impact attendance by 5,000-10,000 and $135,000-$270,000.
Under terms of its four-game 2007 agreement with Colorado, the Buffaloes’ $500,000 appearance fee matches the largest ever given an opponent to play in Aloha Stadium. UH also paid CU $500,000 in 2011, but that game, which was on a Saturday, drew 35,629. UH received $500,000 for its 2010 and ’14 trips to Boulder.
UH’s biggest opening payday came in 2010, when it said it took in $1.1 million for the game against 14th-ranked USC. But while that Thursday game drew 39,543 through the turnstiles, the cost of bringing USC here was valued at about $250,000 since UH put together a hotel, airfare and cash package.
While UH does not pay rent at Aloha Stadium and does receive some parking revenue, it is responsible for about $80,000 per game in facility operating expenses for security, clean-up, staff, electricity, etc.
