For all the talk about collaboration, the Hawaii Tourism Authority and University of Hawaii athletics have often regarded each other more warily than warmly.

While they worked together during March Madness in 2016, when the HTA sought to tap into NCAA Tournament appearances by sending troupes of entertainers and a shipment of lei with both the men’s and women’s basketball teams on the road, they have often been at odds over money.

Which is why new HTA President and Chief Executive Officer Chris Tatum’s unsolicited pledge this week to sit down and seek ways to “engage” with UH is noteworthy and encouraging.

Maybe it was the residual euphoria over the announcement that the Los Angeles Rams would be playing the Dallas Cowboys moments earlier on Thursday, but Tatum used the occasion to say “I want to. … What we need to do is do more with UH (athletics). I’d love to be more engaged with UH.”

Tatum, who was named to run the HTA in November, said, “That’s one of the things that, when I took the job, I had been thinking about because they can be good ambassadors for us.”

To understand what that could mean, you have to glimpse the history.

The HTA once provided UH with a financial stipend — and then incurred the department’s ire by turning around and yanking it away the next year.

And the HTA shuddered two years ago when legislators considered a bill that would have given UH a piece of the transient accommodation tax, the wellspring of HTA’s funding.

With no Pro Bowl to ante up for, the thinking by some legislators was that the $5.2 million once paid to the NFL for the privilege of hosting its annual all-star game should go to a more worthy cause, helping fund athletics at Manoa and Hilo.

Athletic director David Matlin sought to walk a tightrope on the issue pining for the money while diplomatically refraining from endorsing the pocket that some legislators wanted to pick to get it. Asked about the preferred source for the funds, Matlin professed he was “agnostic.”

UH has long claimed its role in bringing visitors here should be recognized and rewarded, saying its home games and events it hosts across the sports spectrum contribute to tourism.

As proof, a succession of athletic directors have cited a study by the Shidler School of Business for 2013-14 that said UH athletics was responsible for attracting approximately 20,000 visitors a year, numbers similar to what the Pro Bowl was estimated to have brought in at times.

Back in the years when UH hosted Wisconsin, Alabama, Notre Dame or USC in football, Indiana or North Carolina in men’s basketball or NCAA Championships in volleyball, the more compelling evidence was the thousands of color-coordinated fans spotted in Waikiki and elsewhere.

That level of visiting teams, ones that bring their strong followings with them, have become fewer and further between in recent years.

Tatum said as he and the HTA work on their budget for the upcoming fiscal year he hopes to sit down with Matlin, “So we can share some ideas that will, hopefully, help both of us. We need to see how we can do this.”

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