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MONDAY, MARCH 2, 2015

KA LEO O HAWAII: THE VOICE

SPORTS

sports@kaleo.org
@kaleosports

Nick Huth
Sports Editor

David McCracken
Associate Sports Editor
CONFERENCE COMPARISON

PERCENTAGE OF
EXPENSES COVERED BY
DIRECT SUPPORT

FILE PHOTO / KA LEO O HAWAII

BIG WEST

75.6%

MOUNTAIN WEST

41.5%

SAN DIEGO STATE

40.4%

BOISE STATE

23.7%

HAWAII

23.7%

The athletic department budgeted for $500,000 in postseason revenue last year but only received $154,049, partly due to UH footballs 4-9 season.

Beyond wins and losses

Underfunding at the heart of continued UH athletic deficit, according to Jay
NICK HUTH
SPORTS EDITOR

The expected $3.5 million decit next year for the UH athletics
department is set to continue the
trend of underfunding thats led to
a decit in 11 of the last 13 years,
according to a report released by
the school earlier this month.
It underlines the fundamental problem, athletics director
Ben Jay said. Structurally, we have
not been funded to the level that
everybody else is that we compare
ourselves to.
The schools that UH compares
itself to are those in both the Mountain West and Big West conferences. At the request of UH Mnoa
Chancellor Robert Bley-Vroman,
Jay compared the nances of the
department with those other programs and assessed the universitys bottom line for last year and
the future.
Part of the report recognized that
costs are expected to rise even further with new opportunities to
spend on student-athletes through
new legislation that goes into effect
on Aug. 1.
The increased spending allowance will enable schools to nance
student-athletes with stipends fullling the complete cost of attendance, including books, fees and
room and board. Although decided
by larger conferences than the two
UH belongs to, increased benets
for student-athletes at larger institutions such as those in the Pac-12,
SEC and Big Ten will be felt through-

out Division I athletics.

Not all schools need to adopt,
but the reality is this: Its going to
be used against you in recruiting.
Coaches are already leery of that,
Jay said. Its already tough enough
to recruit in Hawaii.
With the added cost of competing for recruits through the new
student-athlete welfare initiative,
Bley-Vroman and other leadership
requested research on cutting athletic department programs.
Multiple options were presented in the report, including
the removal of the mens volleyball, swimming, diving and coed
sailing program. Various combinations of those cuts may lead to a
potential savings of up to $1.4 million, which is not enough to balance the budget by itself. The
student-athletes on those teams
are also not receiving full scholarships, meaning that the removal of
the programs will cost the school
elsewhere.
The student-athletes that participate in those sports are in equivalency sports, so youre taking away
from the school in other ways. These
are tuition-paying, room-and-boardpaying students, Jay said.
Jay claims that the scal struggles of the university does not
come down to failure on the eld
or a lack of facilities, but rather a
lack of adaptation to the modern
world of college athletics.
We have just not caught up
with the times and the level of
expense growth, and its not unlike
the rest of the university, Jay said.

Expenses never go down. They

grow each year. The cost of doing
business grows each year. ... Every
year theres been a tuition increase
it affects our bottom line.
ON THE FIELD

When the undefeated UH football team played in the Sugar Bowl

against Georgia in 2008, the athletic department ended the year in
a rare surplus. Although the War-

1.2

million

riors fell to the Bulldogs, it marked

one of just two times the department ended the year without a
decit in the past decade.
However, through a $4.4 million
payout for the high stakes national
matchup against Georgia, the success on the eld only managed to
mask the athletic departments
nancial struggles.
Yes, the Sugar Bowl brought in
money, but if we had not been in
the 2008 Sugar Bowl, this department would have lost money, Jay
said.
The surplus that year was
$295,243, according to the university, meaning that without the
selection to a Bowl Championship
Series game, the department would
have been nearly $4 million in decit. The following year, it lost over
$2.6 million to return to the trend

of decits that stems from underfunding, according to Jay.

NO MAGIC BULLET

Football has statistically been

the universitys biggest revenue
sport, and two of the Warriors
most successful seasons in the last
decade coincided with protable
years for the athletic department.
However, Jay said otherwise when
asked whether consistent football

SPENT IN TRAVEL SUBSIDIES

UH IS THE ONLY SCHOOL
THATS REQUIRED TO PAY

success and a full Aloha Stadium

would solve the departments critical nancial state.
If we had 10,000 more paying
fans a game, basically over that
seven-game home schedule, youre
probably coming close to $1.4 to
$1.5 million, Jay said. It just shows
you that even 10,000 more fans
doesnt solve the budget decit.
Although a recent donation of
$1.2 million to the athletic department will help limit the $3.5 million in expected losses in 2015, the
school claims that fundraising is
not the answer yet. According to
Jay, the aim of fundraising should
be to plan for program expansion
and future endowments instead of
day-to-day operational spending.
The department has listed eight
facility improvement projects that
will cost over $40 million combined

if fundraising improves.
The $1.68 million UH brought in
from student fees last year ranked
last among Mountain West and Big
West schools. Although the enrollment numbers vary among schools
such as San Diego State, Nevada
and Boise State, raising the student
fee $25, as mentioned in the report
would only accumulate about
$850,000. Bley-Vroman claimed that
raising the student fee is an inconvenient option.
I would prefer to not have it
raised. Any increase of fee would
need a lot of support, Bley-Vroman said.
With only 23 of the over 300
programs in Division I athletics
avoiding a similar decit like UH
athletics, Jay claimed that many
mid-major programs are facing the
same need for more support from
multiple revenue streams.
Theyre not unique at all. There
are many programs that are in the
same or a very similar boat.
Jay will resign from his position
this June, citing family reasons for
his departure, and the university is
hoping to have a list of nalists in
March. He said that the report is an
example of his continuing work to
help the university progress.
I try to make sure that we get
the resources for the student-athletes so they can succeed and they
can compete, and I always thought
thats been my job. Im hopeful
whoever sits in this seat next feels
the same way.

Ka Leo O Hawaii