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Sidelines
Kalani Simpson
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Revenue up; ticket, PPV sales down
LET me get this straight. It's OK (well, not OK, but not quite so alarming as it would seem) that UH football attendance is down because the overall level of interest is still there, the overall audience is still there (and some of the lost gate money is still there), when you throw in pay-per-view.
OK. Unless pay-per-view is down, too. Which it is.
Again.
Oh.
"Of course, it's still early," KHNL/KFVE general manager John Fink said. "People can still buy the full season all the way through the second or third or fourth game -- we just prorate it."
So do that. Call today. Fink will thank you. The University of Hawaii will thank you. Oceanic Cable will thank you.
Apparently, they need you.
Attendance trends have not been encouraging. Only about 16,300 UH football season-ticket holders renewed this year, and new buyers had only raised that number to 17,326 by Aug. 25.
This, for a program that once averaged a tickets-issued attendance of more than 40,000 for 14 consecutive seasons, from 1980 through 1993. So it can happen. It has happened.
But we've all been told why numbers are down today: People are staying home to watch live TV. All those missing fans are tuned in to pay-per-view.
Turns out, that may not be the case. PPV numbers are down, too.
"Again, for those pundits who suggest that (pay-per-view is) affecting attendance" -- hey, not me, John -- "if it is, it should be affecting it less every year," Fink said.
Now, there's no way of really knowing how many people are actually watching the UH games on PPV. Not without surveying every house and counting at every restaurant. We can only estimate -- some say 10 per house, some say four -- and, why not, I'll go with any estimate you give me.
But are PPV parties really greatly affecting attendance at the games? Probably not. That would be a lot of full houses. That would be a heck of an estimate. With both figures declining, that would be a tough argument to make.
We do know how many people used to stay home on Saturday nights playing "close your eyes" and watching the delayed same-day telecasts at 10 p.m. instead of heading to Aloha Stadium. TV stations have ratings that keep track of that stuff.
And with free delay off the table, Fink knows how many people now have only two avenues left for seeing UH football that same night -- go to the game or order it in.
No late-night replays "knocks out about 30,000-50,000 people a week," Fink said.
That's a sizable chunk of should-be fans. You'd think their impact would show up somewhere.
"What are those people doing?" Fink said.
I don't know. Undoubtedly, some are watching PPV in viewing huis or at the bars. Undoubtedly, some are not. It doesn't look like many of them are actually going to the games on a regular basis, instead of staying home and staying up late.
In any case, you'd think that the numbers, for either attendance or TV, if not both, would be higher than they are.
They aren't.
Yes, you can throw in pay-per-view as part of Hawaii's overall audience and a sign of the overall level of interest.
Fink said a little fewer than 10,000 season-pass packages have been sold. Last year's total was at least 15 percent higher, and the year before was higher than that.
Fink, for the record, would rather see a full stadium than a full order sheet. Right now, UH isn't seeing either one.
But don't shed a tear for pay-per-view. As a business venture, it still makes sound sense.
"Right now pay-per-view numbers are down a little bit from last year, but the rate is higher, so overall revenue looks like it's going to be ahead of last year," Fink said.
Prices have gone up. In other words, fewer people are buying it, but the ones who do are paying more to make up for the ones who have left. And on the balance sheet, it works.
Fink asks if I get it.
Yes, we've seen that business model before.
That's the UH ticket-sales plan. Exactly.