Sidelines
BIG business is coming to University of Hawaii sports. Ticket fees signal
arrival of big businessThat's good, and that's bad, or perhaps it's good but it's too bad.
And it's about time.
We may have been lucky to be the last outpost of innocence. But it's coming. There's no turning back. Hawaii can't afford to.
Nobody can.
Just about everyone else in the nation for the past five, six, seven, some for 10 years or more, has had to buy their college football tickets by first pitching in with an oxymoron -- a mandatory donation.
Schools all across the country shake down their fans into paying an extra fee for the privilege of then actually buying the tickets at regular price.
This is brilliant marketing. As a source of revenue, it was pure genius.
And, fortunately (or unfortunately, if you're paying) it's a source of revenue Hawaii has opened. Two years ago UH finally dove in, and now we see that the cost of some of the best seats in Aloha Stadium will go up again, an extra $50 a year per season ticket in 2002.
Locally, it is being referred to as a surcharge, and not a "donation." Like an ATM fee, or when you buy a concert ticket.
And believe it or not, this is getting off cheap.
Months ago, a reader wrote: "At my alma mater, South Carolina, $1,000 won't even get you Clemson tickets. The USC Gamecock Club has raised over $8 million in annual giving for the second year in a row."
Eight. Million.
And that's at South Carolina.
Across the country, college athletic departments are becoming more commercialized, and the fans in the stands are becoming more corporate.
In 1998, the minimum for buying any Ohio State season ticket was a $750 donation on top of the actual ticket price. For better seats, it went up to $2,500 or even $50,000.
One of the few holdouts left without "donations" to buy season tickets is Michigan.
Michigan sells out every game of a 107,000-seat stadium, and routinely has approximately 65,000 season ticket holders. And Big Blue is still often in the red.
These days, college sports is driven by money.
(Actually they have been for some time, but now nobody even bothers to hide it. It's a fact of life.)
Donations. Logo royalties. Corporate sponsors.
You know, most of the stuff that the Steinberg group is helping UH out with.
It's the new reality, which is why the decision on the next athletic director is such an important one. In this new world, the next guy has to know how to bring big business to UH athletics, and how to tame the beast.
And it won't stop at $50 in a few seats, but as a start, it's not too bad. Yet.
Hopefully the commercialization of UH sports remains gradual.
But change is coming. It has to.
It's long overdue because Hawaii needs everything it can get to compete, to meet the bottom line and make its department work.
It's sad because our innocence is over.
Kalani Simpson can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com