Monday was officially Day 1 for David Matlin as the University of Hawaii’s new athletic director, and contrary to the gloomy outlook many have assessed the job with, a closer evaluation reveals he actually is stepping into a position with many positives already in place.
If he has not done so already, one of the first things on Matlin’s agenda should be to meet and congratulate the Rainbow Wahine water polo team, which played host to and won the Big West Conference Championship this past weekend.
While water polo may be considered to be a “low-profile,” non-revenue sport, the conference title is nonethlesss significant and should be celebrated. It also comes with an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament May 8 at Stanford, where UH will face Southern California in the quarterfinals.
Also near the top of Matlin’s early “to-do” list – again, if he hasn’t done it already — should be to meet and congratulate the Rainbow Warriors men’s volleyball team, which played host to and swept Long Beach State in last Saturday’s Mountain Pacific Sports Federation quarterfinals. Hawaii (24-5) spent much of this season ranked No. 1 in the nation and has advanced to Thursday’s semifinal match vs. Pepperdine (23-5) at UC Irvine.
As Matlin’s new men’s basketball coach, Eran Ganot correctly pointed out during his introductory press conference on April 9, the student-athletes need to be the first priority. That is the primary reason for the athletic department’s existence: to help student-athletes. Everything else – from department staff, to coaches, to finances, to alumni/fan/community support – falls under that and must always be taken care of with the student-athlete in mind.
So speaking of men’s basketball, and putting the student-athlete first, another priority for Matlin should be meeting with the men’s basketball players and helping Ganot make sure they are being taken care of while Ganot continues to assemble his staff. Ganot no doubt has been swamped with a ton of duties since taking over the program three weeks ago, and he and the players need all the support they can get during the transition period.
Of course, touching base with his senior leadership (associate athletic directors Marilyn Moniz-Kaho‘ohanohano, John McNamara and Carl Clapp) and other department staff also is high on Matlin’s agenda, as is similar “meet-and-greets” with alumni, major corporate sponsors, donors, booster club presidents, etc. Fortunately, Matlin already is familiar and has worked with many of those people, so that part should be relatively smooth and comfortable.
Matlin’s overall philosophy, vision and management style need to be shared with everyone invested in the program, including – at some point – the fans, especially loyal season-ticket holders.
The student-athletes are Matlin’s primary clientele, but the UH athletic department staff, alumni and supporters are critical to helping him serve their needs.
Which brings us to the elephant in the room: An expected $3.5 million deficit when the fiscal year closes on June 30.
The shadow of that elephant has tended to cast a negative light on the program, to the point where it often dominates any discussion of the athletic department’s future.
It certainly is not an easy problem to fix, and there really is no one answer that will fix it all in one shot.
With similar deficits in almost all of the past 15 years or so, many agree that UH’s current “business model” is broken and needs major adjustments, if not a complete overhaul.
But a few positive steps already have been taken to fix at least some obvious faults, such as the creation of “H-Zone” retail stores and shifting the sale (and revenue) of specific athletic logo items from Upper Campus to UH athletics. The football agreement with Aloha Stadium still is not ideal, but at least is improved from where it was about 10 years ago.
Other smaller revenue streams such as Aloha Stadium parking pass sales, the “Coaches’ Choice” initiative in which fans can directly support their favorite sports program by donating toward the purchase of specific equipment/needs, and the “H Club Athletic Fund” Koa Anuenue membership program promise to supplement traditional sources of revenue like gate receipts and regular corporate, philanthropic and booster club donations.
One longtime sore spot – not being able to keep even a share of parking structure revenue during athletic events despite being the main draw – is a good place for Matlin to start when looking for other ways to fix the “broken” business model.
Obviously, one sure way to increase revenue would be to put exciting and winning products on the field and court in the “high-profile” revenue sports of football, men’s and women’s basketball, and baseball.
Some will argue it’s a classic “chicken-or-the-egg” problem: You need money to improve facilities and conditions for those programs to recruit and compete at the conference and national levels, but you also need those teams to win and sell tickets in order to generate the money needed for improvements.
You could also argue that each of those programs once experienced periods of high-level success despite UH’s economic challenges – think “Fabulous Five,” the late 1970s/1980 baseball era of Derek Tatsuno and the 1980 College World Series team, and the Dick Tomey/Bob Wagner and June Jones/Colt Brennan football years.
Yes, times have changed, but all of those teams (and others) proved that while money certainly helps … it is possible to produce winning teams on smaller budgets.
Actually, this year’s Hawaii teams also are good examples: the Rainbow Wahine volleyball team advanced to the NCAA Tournament second round. Men’s basketball won 22 games and reached the conference final. Women’s basketball won the Big West regular season title and advanced to the WNIT. The Rainbow Wahine swimming team won the MPSF championship. The women golfers took second in the Big West Tournament. And as mentioned earlier, UH men’s volleyball was ranked No. 1 for much of this season and the Rainbow Wahine water polo team is headed to the NCAA quarterfinals.
As bad as things once seemed even just a few months ago, the UH athletic program actually has plenty of positive aspects to it, more than enough of a solid foundation upon which to build.
For sure, there is a ton of work still left to do and much more to be achieved, but as outgoing athletic director Ben Jay said at the December press conference announcing his departure:
“This is a great program, folks,” Jay said. “I think all of you know that; if you don’t, you should know that. We have a great intercollegiate athletics program at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. It’s something that this state should be very proud of, it’s something that everybody here in the state of Hawaii should be very proud of, and support.”
That is a message Matlin needs to continue to deliver – to the student-athletes, their parents, the department staff, coaches, alumni, corporate partners, booster club presidents, season ticket holders, media.
Starting yesterday.