The Univ. of Hawaii last week signed a deal to make Raising Cane's its official chicken restaurant partner, adding to the "mounting portfolio of 'official' partners" for the school's athletic program, according to Ferd Lewis of the HONOLULU STAR-ADVERTISER. UH in recent months has "declared an official airline (Hawaiian Airlines), an official beer (Heineken) and ... an 'official off-campus housing partner of UH athletics,' Hale Mahana Apartments." These deals come as UH "attempts to leave no business sector or fast food group untapped in the drive to erase its long-running string of deficits." UH has had a "lucrative corporate sponsor program for decades," upwards of 90 entities. However, "not until recently has the 'official (fill in the blank) of UH athletics' seal of approval been trotted out or so widely employed." That was part of the announced deal nearly two and a half years ago when UH "broke with a 15-year practice of in-house marketing and sponsorships by selling its multimedia rights to IMG College" (HONOLULU STAR-ADVERTISER, 2/18).
