While the flagship University of Hawaii- Manoa faces cutting sports programs if it fails to curtail its budget deficits, the UH-West Oahu is looking to add athletics to its burgeoning campus.
The UH Board of Regents is correct to proceed with caution on any university plans that create new, ongoing financial obligations for state taxpayers. However, the board, and the public, also should resist the impulse to lump the two issues together. Whether to add a Division II athletics program to the Kapolei campus merits scrutiny apart from the ongoing fiscal woes facing the Division I program at Manoa.
The Athletics Department at UH-Manoa must balance its books within three years — without exceeding a $1 million debt ceiling in any of the intervening fiscal years. That’s the deal Manoa Chancellor Tom Apple imposed last May in exchange for forgiving Athletics’ accumulated budget deficit of $13 million. The $30 million department has run at a deficit for 10 of the past 12 years, clearly an unsustainable trend that requires a firm termination point. Regent Benjamin Kudo, chairman of the BOR’s Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics, says that cutting one or more of UH-Manoa’s 21 athletic teams will be the "last resort" if Athletics fails to balance its budget on time.
That UH officials are even broaching the worst-case scenario three years out reflects this reality: A Warrior football team that should be driving revenue for the whole department instead is foundering, with ticket revenue running about $1 million short of projections. A winning college football team provides more than a rallying point for the community or an exciting event for a Saturday night; it brings in money that funds other, lower-profile sports. This needed revenue stream goes beyond the money paid to attend games or to watch them on pay-per-view, and includes charitable gifts to the university from alumni, boosters and others who take pride in the team, and by extension, the entire UH system.
Since the football team is not currently up to that task, Athletic Director Ben Jay looks to save cash where he can, with immediate cuts in capital-equipment and administrative expenses. Another area ripe for overhaul: coaches’ contracts. UH must drive a harder bargain when contracts come up for renewal, lest taxpayers again be left holding the bag — especially when coaches are bought out of their expensive deals after too many losing seasons.
But along with the cuts, Athletics must boost revenues. One clear path is by forging a better deal with the Aloha Stadium Authority. UH pays to use the stadium, but receives no revenue cut from concessions, merchandise sales or promotional signage; its football team is the only one in the Mountain West Conference with such a raw deal. The Legislature and governor can rectify this, and should.
UH hasn’t dropped a sport since 1985 and must field 16 sports team to maintain Division I status. Given Title IX gender-equity rules, low-profile men’s sports might be most at risk, although of course no UH official is speculating out loud at this point. Jay correctly acknowledges the bottom line in tough times: "The reality is, Can we support all these sports, or not?"
Which brings us to UH-West Oahu in Kapolei, a world away from Manoa’s big-money, high-stakes Division I sports. Chancellor Rockne Freitas’ long-term vision for this campus includes a Division II athletics program, starting in a few years with 145 athletes playing 10 sports — none of them football — at a cost of about $2.27 million a year. We look forward to the details he intends to present in January, with projected revenues and expenses and more information about the timeline and potential playing venues.
Rather than dismiss this vision out of hand, the regents should hear Freitas out. The opportunity to play Division II sports could draw more Hawaii athletes to the 2,400-student campus for the education they need to lead productive lives. There’s no chance UH-Manoa would lose Division I-caliber talent to the smaller school; Hawaii’s community colleges do not offer athletics; and there’s a built-in audience on Oahu’s west side. At a fraction of the price, UH-West Oahu could develop a winning program from the ground up.
The timing is awkward, no doubt, but that alone should not doom this idea. UH-Manoa and UH-West Oahu are separate institutions. Their aspirations in athletics should be judged separately, based on careful analysis of the costs and benefits to the students and the taxpayers of this state.
