Thursday, November 1, 2001
Decision coming Hawaii athletic department officials expected to know by today if the UH football game against Air Force at Aloha Stadium will be played Nov. 23 or 24.
on Air Force game
UH finds out today if a
second game must be moved
to late Friday afternoon for ESPNBy Dave Reardon
dreardon@starbulletin.comThe game was originally scheduled for Saturday, the 24th. But ESPN -- which has a TV contract with the Western Athletic Conference -- expressed interest in televising the game, meaning it would have to be moved to the day before with a 4 p.m. rather than 6 p.m. start.
"We have a three-way call with ESPN, myself and UH tomorrow," WAC commissioner Karl Benson said yesterday. "I know ESPN is very happy with both Friday (previous telecasts of WAC) games."
Last Friday's national telecast of Hawaii's 38-34 victory over Fresno State drew around 1 million viewers, Benson said.
The WAC and UH had worked out a deal where the conference would reimburse UH for lost income because of ticket refunds caused by moving the game. Hawaii athletic director Hugh Yoshida said the amount of reimbursement is not known yet.
"We have to come up with figures based on the history of the attendance. Once we get that and work with it we can present something to the conference office," Yoshida said.
Benson and Yoshida spoke to each other yesterday about the Air Force game. Yoshida said there is no compensation from the WAC if this game is moved to Friday and attendance is affected.
Hawaii associate athletic director Jim Donovan said ESPN might not televise the game.
"There's no definitive answer yet. But it appears ESPN is taking the preliminary position that it won't televise because it doesn't owe the WAC more exposures, other than the Hawaii-Brigham Young game (on Dec. 8)," Donovan said. "We hope to know soon so we can offer refunds if necessary."
The Air Force game became less attractive for the network because the Falcons (4-3) have lost their last two games. Hawaii, which hosts San Jose State on Saturday, is 5-2 overall and 4-2 in the WAC.
Meanwhile, Donovan said the Fresno State game provided good national exposure for the program and state. But the UH athletic department is wary of straining relationships with local high school programs, since Friday is traditionally the bastion of prep football.
"There's more positive than negative, but it's still a mixed bag," Donovan said. "It was a very exciting game and we won, and we got a good viewership.
"On the other side, our high school coaches are very concerned about Friday night college games. Locally, we got a lot of cooperation from the high schools because I think they sensed that the ESPN and WAC deal was dependent on it. So it's a mixed blessing."
Hawaii High School Athletic Association Director Keith Amemiya said he is open to switching high school games to Saturdays to make room for Friday night UH games -- on a limited basis.
"The university's athletic department has been very helpful to us over the years, so we try to accommodate them whenever possible," Amemiya said. "There's no question that the Fresno State game helped UH in terms of exposure, but in the long run these games will hurt our high school athletic programs.
"The fact that the game was successful is almost beside the point. It's not a win-win situation for all involved. In the long run the only true winner in all this is the WAC."
UH coach June Jones said it's better for his team to play on Saturday evenings, all things considered.
"It's fantastic for the state of Hawaii, don't get me wrong," he said. "But for us as a football team I'd rather play at 6:05 on Saturday. I don't think (ESPN) helps us in recruiting. People we recruit see it anyway. With KFVE we're in Texas, we're in California."
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