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Thursday, April 20, 2000

Money talks
for UH Board
of Regents

A sports marketing contract
with Steinberg will help make the
Rainbows more visible

Yoshida gets approval to adjust coaches' salaries
Gets OK to establish women's rowing

By Pat Bigold
Star-Bulletin

The University of Hawaii Board of Regents will make official today a five-year sports marketing contract with one of the world's most powerful sports agents.

The deal with Leigh Steinberg's consulting firm of Steinberg, Moorad & Dunn of California will affect all sports in the athletic department, which has been without a marketing director for nine months.

Two Rainbow football games in Japan as well as fattened deals with major corporate sponsors will be part of the package.

"We're trying to schedule a game right now in Japan with an opponent," said head football coach June Jones, who is represented by Steinberg and has known him since 1977.

"In 2002, 2003 the NCAA will allow us to play a 13th game, so we're going to take advantage of that," said Jones.

He said that the men's basketball team's Rainbow Classic, which lost its national TV contract last year, will be among Rainbow events to benefit from the Steinberg deal.

Over the years, Steinberg has represented some of the world highest-profile athletes, including Drew Bledsoe, Warren Moon, Steve Young, Troy Aikman and even gymnast Kerri Strug. He was the inspiration for the movie, "Jerry Maguire."

"Leigh Steinberg gives us a credibility that will be very significant over the next five years," said Jones, who credits Steinberg with convincing him to come back to Hawaii.

"The difference is that when Leigh Steinberg makes a call to NBC or ABC, the call gets returned."

Jones, said he estimates the cost of the marketing deal to be about $100,000 a year "with a huge upside."

Steinberg's firm is launching into merchandising, shoe and apparel deals, TV and radio contracts, internet interactivity between fans and coaches, and travel packages, among other things.

"They also have a split in there for new revenues they generate for us other than what we already have, so there is quite an incentive for him to do quite a few things," said Jones.

He said that Steinberg has already negotiated "a pretty significant upgrade for us with Reebok, although we're still waiting for Nike's final proposal."

Jones said he believes Steinberg has the clout to raise the athletic program's visibility far beyond what it is now.

"Leigh has a lot of respect in the market place with a whole range of different groups, from TV and radio, to companies like Nike and Reebok, and the arm he has to help us is going to be huge," he said.

Steinberg's firm was sold last October to Assante Corp. of Canada for $120 million.

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UH Money talks

Yoshida gets approval to adjust
coaches’ salaries and establish a
position for women’s rowing

By Paul Arnett
Star-Bulletin

University of Hawaii athletic director Hugh Yoshida received approval from the Board of Regents Committee on Finance yesterday to adjust coaches' salaries to be more competitive with other Division I programs.

He also received approval to establish a coaching position for women's rowing. Yoshida made it clear in yesterday's meeting that the athletic department isn't ready to add women's rowing to its program, but he wanted to have the coaching position in place in case that occurs.

"These were two areas we needed to address and were able to get done to help our program," Yoshida said. "Since I've been here, we've added $2 million to our budget.

"We can't be competitive with some of the national programs out there, but this does help us, especially with our football program. We want to be able to pay competitive salaries to keep continuity in football. I'm very pleased the increases were approved."

The salary range established by Yoshida and approved by the committee for a women's rowing coach is $33,000 to $56,100. Earlier this year, the Board of Regents approved the addition of women's track to help the Rainbows meet the requirements of gender equity established by Title IX.

The Board of Regents formally voted on the two matters today, but both are expected to be approved.

Yoshida recommended no raises to any of his coaches in yesterday's committee meeting. But he did enhance the salary range for several positions, including head football coach.

The old range was $92,004 to $157,008. The new range is $99,996 to $199,992. Hawaii head coach June Jones is reportedly making around $400,000 a year, but that includes money generated from booster clubs, and television and radio revenue.

Increases were also approved for the assistant positions. Jones can now pay his associate coach between $66,312 to $125,988. The pay for coordinators can range between $65,412-$117,744 and assistant coaches can make between $50,160-$90,288.

"You need to be able to pay your coaches a competitive wage or face the chance of losing them to another school," said Jones. He lost defensive coordinator Greg McMackin after Texas Tech nearly doubled his salary last year.

Yoshida also asked for salary increases in women's basketball, men's and women's volleyball, women's softball, and men's and women's swimming.

Interestingly, Yoshida did not ask to alter the ranges for his men's basketball and baseball programs. Western Athletic Conference member Tulsa University recently gave men's head basketball coach Bill Self a new contract reportedly worth about $500,000 a year.

As for women's basketball, the old salary range was $54,000 to $92,004.

Yoshida cited in today's meeting that the median salary nationwide is $103,505. The new salary range for current head coach Vince Goo is a minimum of $71,388 to $135,636.

Volleyball coaches Dave Shoji and Mike Wilton will be happy with the new ranges should they be approved by the Board of Regents.

The new ranges for both coaches are between $53,820-$107,640.

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UH Athletics
Ka Leo O Hawaii