The 20 Something Year Old Entrepreneur

On Monday, March 2, 2009, Michael Tsai of the Honolulu Advertiser wrote an article, University of Hawaii sports losing their fan base as recession bites, about the current lack of a fan base at University of Hawaii athletic events.

Tsai interviewed UH sociology professor David Johnson, who bashed the Athletics Department for “poor leadership and a lack of accountability — in the department and across the university.”  Johnson talked about the mishandling of leadership during the Herman Frazier era, how the football program excelled on the field but caused problems in the classroom, and the rest of the problems the coaches and administration face.

Johnson went on to say, “I am happy that UH tries to foster excellence in athletics.  But the vast majority of UH students do not participate in intercollegiate athletics, and some of them have excellent academic potential.”

“If this university’s core mission is the pursuit of academic excellence, then why is it willing to bleed big money year after year after year for a small handful of student-athletes while at the same time making no serious commitment to cultivating the potential of its best and brightest undergraduates?”

The article then continues to the low attendance from the students and how the lack of attendance is mainly because UH is a “commuter” school.

Tyler Law, a biology student said, “student interest and involvement will always be a challenge because UH is a commuter school.  The local students live in Pearl City or ‘Aiea or the North Shore,” he said. “Locals who go to UH aren’t going to want to go to the games if they’re home already, and the Mainlanders who live here aren’t really into this school’s sports because they’re into the big name schools.”

After reading this article, and taking to heart what Tyler Law said, people (students) aren’t into UH sports because there is no experience.  I’ve said it many times on this blog.  When he said that Mainlanders are into the “big name schools”, they probably are because there’s an experience of going to those schools games.  There’s an experience that you won’t get anywhere else on this planet.

If we want to see a substantial amount of people going to games, let’s give them a reason.  Let’s give them an experience like no other.  Maybe then will things start to turn around.

Tags: experience, lack of fans, UH Athletics