The First 100 Days
New UH athletic director Jim Donovan hit the ground running, cleaning up for his predecessor and setting a new course. His list of accomplishments is
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That vision, Donovan says, is that the university is a designation of choice for student athletes and that the athletic department will provide entertainment value for the fans. A major step in providing that value has been the reduction in ticket prices and the creation of family packs that Donovan says could save a family of four $25 on the cost of a volleyball game. By taking over the concessions on lower campus, the department will be able to lower food prices by 20 percent and, more impressive, the cost of beer by 10 percent. Another change is the 50-percent reduction in pay-per-view rates for season ticket holders.
The department has increased its take “significantly” on merchandise sales at the Rainbowtique and has increased the payout of its television contract by $550,000. Add to this the additional money from its new radio contract, the $100,000 in new revenue from Koa Anuenue enrollment, $7.5 million from the state for repair and maintenance and the $5 million gift from the Clarence T C Ching Foundation, and things are a bit brighter than they were 100 days ago. Donovan also says he fully expects the entire payout from the Sugar Bowl to go directly to the department to pay off its deficit. However, even with the big start, Donovan is not about to celebrate just yet.
“Stan Sheriff (the late AD) told me, ‘The day you are hired they are going to hand you a pie, and every time you make a decision you’re cutting out a piece of that pie. Big decisions are big pieces and little decisions are little pieces. Your job is to get the heck out of there before all the pie is gone.”
While the new AD does-n’t shy away from budgetary questions and talks easily about the challenges of mixing the “culture of education that is more socialist in nature” and the “entertainment side which is more capitalistic in nature,” nothing lights up his eyes more than talking about what happens on the field.
“We’ll probably have one of the best defenses in my 30 years here for football ... Men’s volleyball had only one senior, and they are coming back with a lot of young talent ... Baseball placed second to the team that won the national title ... I was playing golf with Jamie Dixon, the head coach at Pittsburgh, a couple of week ago, and he said this kid (new UH recruit Roderick Flemings) is legit, top 10 in the country. He’ll be an instant impact player for us a la AC Carter ... Diving, two national titles ...
“That’s what makes me smile. That’s what wakes me up in the morning, not the budget.”
For all the creative financing and beating the bushes for donors, the financial success for the department rests simply on the teams’ ability to draw fans and have them return. Stan Sheriff liked to say that fans vote with their wallets and, as strange as it might sound on the surface, the newest person responsible for bringing in those people wants to add some Disney magic to the business of UH athletics. It’s nice to see that his failure to become a member of the Electric Light Parade as an Anaheim teen has not left him bitter.
“At the end of the day, when you see people leave Disneyland they have created a memory. The kids are tired, everyone is tired but everyone had a great day. Everywhere you go you don’t see trash, you see people who care. Can we get them done overnight? I’ll be the first to say no.
“It’s like turning a supertanker. You’ve got a big department with 19 departments and a bunch of personalities, so you start turning the wheel and maybe four, five, seven miles down it starts to turn.
“Well, I’m sitting in that room turning that wheel, and I have a lot of people helping me, and we’re gonna get people to understand that this is where we are going. They are going to be a part of it, and when we get there everybody will be prouder and happier.”
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