You get the feeling David Matlin would stand atop the state Capitol roof and shout the University of Hawaii athletic department’s plea for financial assistance, if he could.

That’s if the projected $4.7 million deficit didn’t make the UH athletic director want to jump first.

But in this state, securing funds for the only Division I athletic program usually involves more tap dancing than shouting. Some cases a lot more.

For example, there is Senate Bill 83, which, as outlined Friday, proposes to provide $3 million in much-needed assistance for UH to fund its own travel and the subsidies it is required to provide for visiting conference opponents.

It would be providential for UH. But the money — if it comes — would not be without the likelihood of burnt bridges with the powerful Hawaii Tourism Authority.

Travel expenses make up the bulk of what Matlin likes to call UH’s $5.2 million in expenses “unique” to its geography. Without them, a UH study claims, the athletic department would have been in the black last year.

With them, UH is projecting a fifth consecutive year in the red.

All but 24 of the 230 schools that compete on the major-college level also fail to meet the NCAA’s definition of self sufficiency, according to a 2014 study. But most of them either consider that the cost of doing business or have the will and wherewithal to cover them.

When the bill was introduced by Sen. J. Kalani English (D, Maui, Molokai, Lanai and Kahoolawe), UH found itself in a conundrum. Yes, it would like to have every penny of the proposed $3 million, but then came the fine print.

The bill says the $3 million would come out of a tourism special fund, “the proceeds of which are primarily derived from the transient accommodations tax.” The TAT is HTA’s financial wellspring.

The same HTA Matlin is trying to forge a new, long-term relationship with after years of UH being shut out. He is pushing the case that UH sports are responsible for bringing more than 20,000 visitors to Hawaii, where they spent $31 million, according to a 2015 Shidler College of Business economic impact report.

Ventures such as the football team’s Aug. 27 appearance in Australia, where the state will try to reinforce its tourism message and brand, would be an element of it.

So, Matlin has immediate lockjaw when asked about the senate bill, much as the dollar signs might dance in his head.

All UH will say, through spokesman Dan Meisenzahl, is “we do like it as a mechanism to provide funding for UH athletics, but we also know that it is competing against other important statewide efforts like the HTA. What we do support is providing adequate funding to athletics and the recognition of its importance to the state.”

Likewise, while some UH Board of Regents members have been sharply critical of the HTA, which withdrew what had been $575,000 in annual support prior to 2014, Matlin has resolutely avoided comment, even sitting poker-faced at regents meetings, when the subject arises.

Welcome to tap dancing, UH’s unofficial 22nd sport.

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