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Frazier on the clock
with plan

IF only we all had booster clubs to help out with the bills:

» It sounds as if there's reason for optimism regarding UH's athletic department budget. But I do notice Herman Frazier is not a "brace them for the possible bad news then come back and exceed expectations with a pleasant surprise" kind of guy. He's painted himself in a corner, with projections of his five-year plan, and now he's on the clock.

» The strategy to use football road dates to help balance the budget is an interesting one. That's how a lot of lower-level schools do it, so I guess it's something new for a more ambitious program to do the same -- especially this one. I like the ingenuity and the confidence involved in doing something like that. Although "UH" and "road" have often gone wrong when stuck in the same sentence (never mind trips to the East Coast). So we'll see how it works out. If nothing else, the kind of trips they're talking about sound as if they'll be a lot of fun to talk about.

» I could easily be wrong here, but I really don't see how Aloha Stadium can afford to knock off UH's rent by more than a few points. "Not paying rent at the stadium would be a major swing," Frazier said in yesterday's paper. Well, yeah. But I don't know how you could even begin to count on something like that. Although you do notice Frazier is down to talking about a $300,000-something figure from the previously oft-used $800,000-something figure.

» Good news that the new television contract -- whoever the carrier turns out to be -- is expected to be a big one. That solves a lot of headaches. But people forget that UH TV contracts have been pretty big before. And there were reasons why the last one was significantly smaller.

» Nice that new seating plans will bring in more money from those willing to pay that much. Courtside seats are good. Scaled loge seating can work wonders if done right (if buyers outweigh backlash). But UH needs to fill that stadium, bottom line. It needs to find out why fans aren't coming. It needs to look at what's missing. It needs to recapture the feeling that surrounded the program in the '80s and '90s, when average home attendance was better than 40,000 for 14 straight years.

» On Wisconsin's "Native American nickname" no-play policy: Have heard from several people who say 1) if the Akaka Bill passes, Wisconsin might have to look at UH's nickname in a new light; 2) Mexico is part of North America and so the Aztecs were as Native American as anybody; 3) "Glad you didn't remind them that Hawaii is part of America."