As in the board game, as in the real-life version of Monopoly. The pesky utilities won't kill you like Boardwalk with a hotel, but they can be pretty annoying.

An Oceanic-Time Warner VP said the local cable giant had received close to 100 complaints by yesterday about an outage at the start of the Hawaii football game Saturday. The blank screens resulted in pay-per-view customers missing most of the first quarter of UH's monumental 32-29 upset win at Fresno State.

The cable company (with UH's authorization) was not promising anything yesterday; Oceanic claimed no fault because the outage “;was on the Fresno side of the ledger,”; vice president and operations manager Norman Santos said.

“;Our position is we delivered substantially the whole game,”; Santos added. “;We controlled what we could. If we're looking at the end of the game it's a whole different scenario. That would have resonated.”;

Santos also said a quicker response might be in order if UH had lost the game.

My translation: It would've been harder to try to slip this by fans unhappy with a loss.

As it stands, a hundred complaints out of nearly 10,000 paying customers seems plenty resonant to me. (Some told me they didn't complain because they considered it no use.)

And the part about the beginning of the game not mattering as much as the rest, well I don't get that and neither do plenty of fans who paid to see the whole thing live.

Especially in this case; they missed what could turn out to be the biggest play of the Warriors' season. If UH builds off the Fresno State win and continually improves throughout the fall, we will point back to Ryan Mouton's 90-yard kickoff return as the pivotal moment.

The most exciting play of the early season sent a message that UH was ready to compete with the nationally ranked Bulldogs. It was must-see TV for Hawaii fans.

People paid for it, and Oceanic (and its partners, UH and KFVE) agreed to provide the service. That's the bottom line. It doesn't matter whose fault it is that it didn't happen.

And it's not the first time.

Clint Akine of Hilo said he was promised a credit because of an outage during a volleyball game last month, but it hasn't happened yet. He called for a refund again for Saturday's partial football game. Akine was told he'd be credited $10, but wasn't optimistic about it.

“;It's just not right,”; he said. “;I was promised a service and paid for it and didn't receive it.

Late yesterday, UH assistant athletic director John McNamara said he and athletic director Jim Donovan are coordinating with Oceanic and monitoring the complaints, and will try to do right by the fans.

“;The only thing off the table is a full refund,”; McNamara said. “;We're not at odds (with Oceanic). We want to make sure we look at this from all different sides and appreciate the patience of the fans. Different options are being explored.”;

I've never bought into free live TV being some kind of birthright for UH fans. But making people pay for something they used to get free is one thing; making them pay and not delivering is another.

If refunds are out of the question, how about at least a credit for a free basketball or volleyball game?

Oceanic needs to realize its monopoly days are numbered as satellite TV and Internet streaming become viable options. Meanwhile, it might do well to develop some customer loyalty in preparation for when that time comes.