The Univ. of Hawaii athletic department is "staring at the possibility" of a $2M deficit this fiscal year and "may have to lay off some part-time and temporary workers," according to Ferd Lewis of the HONOLULU STAR-ADVERTISER. Officials at a UH Board of Regents meeting yesterday also "held out the possibility that the student body could be asked to pay a higher athletic fee as early as next year and the cost of individual game football tickets -- but not season tickets -- could go up." UH Chancellor Tom Apple last summer took a $14.7M "decadelong accumulated net deficit off the books" and "gave the department three years to balance its ... budget or face the possibility of cutting from its offering of 21 sports." AD Ben Jay said that athletics department "began the fiscal year July 1 with the projection of a $249,000 deficit." But he told the UH Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics yesterday, "We are, obviously, gonna see more." Jay cited "an $800,000 shortfall in projected football ticket revenues and the inability to come up with" an additional $1M in fundraising "that had been counted on." Lewis notes UH has "sought to share in some revenues at Aloha Stadium, including concessions and signage, and a return to a subsidy" from the Hawaii Tourism Authority "after a year without one." The HTA "had given UH as much as $575,000" (HONOLULU STAR-ADVERTISER, 2/6).
