If the full board approves this morning, coaches will be in line for their first salary increase since 1990.

"We haven't had a salary increase in the last six years," Hawaii athletic director Hugh Yoshida said last night. "Board policy is that these recommended salary ranges should be reviewed on a periodic (every two years) basis.

"The increases are substantial because we haven't had a change in any salaries in more than six years. The recommendation is one based on national surveys.

"This was something we had to work toward because the current range is really antiquated. If you want to keep good coaches in your program, you have to pay them a competitive wage."

The current salary range for the head football coach is $66,000 to $96,000. Under the proposal presented by Yoshida to the committee, that range would increase nearly 40 percent to $92,004 to $157,008.

Yoshida said swimming coaches and baseball coaches would not be affected by the raises because their salaries remain competitive nationally.

"We're doing a lot of long-range planning so this department can be competitive with other schools across the country," Yoshida said. "We had to raise the window of salary ranges to be competitive.

"We're looking to add associate coaches to all of our programs. We also made the women's soccer coach a full-time position. It was always a casual hire before.

"The president is slowly taking us off general funds, so the onus falls back on us to find ways to pay for these increases, but not with state funds."

Under these long-range plans, Yoshida plans to increase football revenue in 1998 by scaling the house in various tiers, increasing ticket prices for select games and implementing a one-time surcharge.

He also plans to increase ticket prices for men's and women's volleyball next year and for baseball in 1998 and men's basketball in 1999, as well as charge admission for softball starting in 1998.

"We're also planning to have a system in place that will allow fans to order tickets by telephone beginning in January of 1997," Yoshida said. "We also want to

ue8 have satellite ticket office locations by the end of next June."

Yoshida is counting on television revenues being $200,000 to $300,000 above anticipated budget revenue for 1997-2002 once a new contract is in place.

And he expects arena revenue to be $100,000 to $200,000 above anticipated budget revenues from 1996 to 2002.

"We're going to have to be able to pay our own bills, and these are some of the ideas we have in place," Yoshida said.

Yoshida used the University of Texas and Texas A&M in his comparative study on coaching salaries. As an example, the associate football coach at Hawaii has a median salary of $69,120. At Texas, that salary is $76,058.

Rainbows head football coach Fred vonAppen has said on several occasions that putting together a talented staff with the current salary ranges was difficult.

None of the coaches will be eligible for these increases until their contracts expire, but most of the assistants have one-year deals.

"What makes it even tougher is the cost of living here," vonAppen said. "Compared to many places on the mainland, it's enormous."

According to the proposal, the women's head volleyball coach has a higher sliding scale than the men's head coach.

The current range for the women's head coaching position is $39,000 to $66,000. The new range is $39,000 to $72,000. In the men's program, the current range is $30,000 to $45,000. The new range is $33,000 to $66,000.

"We're also looking to add a women's water polo coach and a video specialist in football," Yoshida said. "We still have some things we need to address, but this increased salary range for all our coaches is one of the more important steps in that process."

In other board news, a committee recommended that the university pay the Western Athletic Conference $150,000 in dues so the league could become incorporated and avoid any legal liabilities.

The board also endorsed the statement of principles proposed by the Knight Foundation Committee's reform agenda.