Kathleen Higashiguchi is a long-time University of Hawai'i football fan who attends some road games and, until 2005, faithfully tailgated at Aloha Stadium with a group of friends.

But with a new 60-inch television set she said she has discovered the no-hassles joy of watching Warrior games on a pay-per-view package that was expanded to include Rainbow Wahine volleyball and men's basketball.

With attendance at some UH football games having dropped to the lowest levels of head coach June Jones' tenure, it has been easy to point the finger of prime responsibility at the four-year-old PPV plan and the options it has given fans such as Higashiguchi.

But figures released yesterday by KFVE/KHNL vice president and general manager John Fink to pointedly rebut that long-held argument are the latest evidence to suggest attendance problems besetting UH are not that easily pigeonholed.

The good news for the Warriors is that PPV apparently isn't the huge drain on attendance it has been theorized to be. The bad news is that, as disgruntled fans have maintained in both words and with their disappearance, UH's turnstile problems apparently run a whole lot deeper.

The issue of dwindling attendance has been simmering for a couple seasons now. Eleven months ago, UH regent Alvin Tanaka told school officials, "We would like to see what the trade-off is in lost attendance because, even though we have per-per-view in football, we just don't want to have a Chad Owens playing in front of 10,000 people, or something like that."

If PPV package sales actually declined from 8,997 to 7,809 with the 2005 price increase then, unless those who are buying them are cramming their living rooms to the rafters with plenty more friends and family, PPV isn't the biggest boogeyman in this equation. Not when UH attendance continues to plummet.

Indeed, for 2005 KFVE/KHNL did away with its 10 p.m. same-night delayed free telecasts as well and attendance still dropped to some post-1998 (the 0-12 season) lows. Four of the five smallest home crowds in the past seven years came this season.

I mean, just 25,661 for three-time defending champion Boise State?

As such, these latest numbers would seem to reinforce the claims of fans who blame their disconnect on the rise in premium seat charges, the parking situation, changes in the stadium atmosphere, uniforms and other factors.

Meanwhile, they should give the UH administration additional food for thought in the necessary reexamination of the situation before next season. For the biggest question confronting UH football for 2006 is less who will play running back or any other position. It is how to reverse the exodus from the stands and win back fans.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.