The Univ. of Hawaii athletic department is "seeking a national marketing partner" after "nearly 15 years of going it alone," according to Ferd Lewis of the HONOLULU STAR-ADVERTISER. UH AD David Matlin "declined to say which companies UH is talking to, but they are believed to include the industry leaders in college sports marketing," Learfield and IMG College. Matlin said, "The benefit of looking at a company that has a national reach is that we don't get a lot of national and regional dollars (now), so it will help our program. The people that have that reach have those (national) relationships." Matlin said UH hopes to make a decision in the "next month and get up and running" for the '17-18 academic year (HONOLULU STAR-ADVERTISER, 3/2).
WORKING TOGETHER: Lewis noted UH and Aloha Stadium have begun "negotiating a new agreement" for the school's football games. Both parties "know that under the present model substantive change isn't going to happen in a 42-year relationship that is a curious rarity in the circles" in which UH competes. It "isn't like UH has the leverage of playing its games somewhere else." The "last major change in the contract came a decade ago," when the Aloha Stadium Authority "succeeded in waiving the rental fee of as much as $500,000 a year that UH had been paying." Since '07, UH has been responsible for "covering so-called out-of-pocket expenses such as electricity, security and cleanup, which can still run $85,000-$100,000 per game" (STARADVERTISER.com, 3/2).
