If you want to see the University of Hawai'i football opener against Alabama on television, you might have to pay for it.

John Fink, K5 vice president and general manager, said the Sept. 2 game at Tuscaloosa could be part of the pay-per-view package, which is scheduled to go on sale next week.

K5 and Oceanic Time Warner Cable expect to offer their largest pay-per-view slate of UH sports with 14 to 16 events, involving football, women's volleyball and men's basketball this school year.

The package will come with a "modest price increase," according to Fink.

Details, including the schedule and prices, will be finalized in the next few days, Fink said. But tentative plans call for the pay-per-view plan to include 8 to 10 football games, three women's volleyball matches and three men's basketball games.

Besides the Alabama game, K5 hopes to offer either the Nov. 25 game with Purdue or the Dec. 2 Oregon State game on pay-per-view. Under terms of its agreement with the Western Athletic Conference, ESPN has until Nov. 1 to declare which game it will take but can't take both without UH's approval.

"At this point we are going on the assumption that we are going to have the Alabama game, but we haven't finalized it yet," Fink said. "We're not hearing any indication that it is going to be taken (by a network) but we're not naive enough to think between now and next month or so there may be somebody. So, it makes more sense for us to include it in the (pay-per-view) deal."

Fink said if the station loses the game to a network, it will make refunds to its customers.

A Southeastern Conference spokesman said at this point it was unlikely ESPN would show the game, but that it could end up on Fox Sports Net South or Lincoln Financial Sports, the SEC regional syndicator that is not available here.

Fink said K5 expects to make available 11 or 12 of UH's 13 games through a combination of free K5 telecasts and pay-per-view.

K5 will air UH home games without charge on Sundays but dropped delayed free same-night telecasts after the 2004 season.

Pay-per-view is a system whereby fans who can't, or choose not to, attend selected UH games can watch them at home by either subscribing to a package or buying games individually. Prices will vary based on whether the subscriber is a renewal, a new customer, or a Neighbor Island resident.

Prices have increased each year since its inception as other sports have been added to the package.

Last year, new customers on O'ahu paid $200 for a 12-event package while Neighbor Island customers were charged $75. In 2004, new customers paid $150 (O'ahu) and $55 (Neighbor Islands). In 2003, a six-game football package cost $100 for O'ahu viewers and $40 for Neighbor Island viewers. In 2002, a seven-game UH football package cost $75 for O'ahu customers and $24 for Neighbor Island viewers.

Since its inception, pay-per-view sales have topped more than $3 million. Revenue reached an all-time high, $1.56 million, last year despite a decline in sales. Fink said 7,809 packages were sold in 2005, down from 8,997 in 2004. The drop was attributed to a poor (5-7) season by the football team, which accounted for six of the 12 events.

UH received approximately $65,000 for 2005 while its partners, K5 and Oceanic, earned $922,500 and $562,500, respectively. UH receives a smaller share because it already gets $1.75 million in rights fees.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com.