The University of Hawai'i's two major fall sports — football and women's volleyball — took a combined $1.25 million hit at the box office in 2008 compared with 2007, early reflections of how the economic downturn is affecting the athletic program.

The combination of a struggling football team that went 7-7 on the heels of a 12-1 championship season the year before, and the tightening economy produced a $1.2 million drop in football ticket revenue, according to unaudited figures from UH.

Meanwhile, the Rainbow Wahine volleyball team came in $55,000 below 2007, UH said.

"The numbers aren't a surprise to me, but they are a little disappointing," said Jim Donovan, UH athletic director. "We're seeing it in every sector (of business) and we, especially, started to feel it from early November on."

Football and women's volleyball are two of the three biggest revenue-producing sports in the 19-team lineup at UH. Men's basketball, whose season is currently under way, is the other.

As a result, UH officials said they are projecting as much as a $3 million shortfall of the $29.5 million budget for the current fiscal year.

Donovan said a hiring freeze and containment measures have been undertaken in an attempt to reduce the deficit.

"We have asked our people to cut back and be prudent in their spending," he said.

Donovan said he has not ruled out job cuts but said those, if they come, would be decided on in the spring.

The athletic department has run at a deficit since 2002. When Donovan replaced Herman Frazier 10 months ago, UH had accumulated a net deficit of $4.4 million to $6 million, according to insider estimates. The annual independent audit for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2008, which must be approved by the Board of Regents, is scheduled to be released next month.

Football season ticket renewals, which are due to go out shortly, will remain at last season's prices, Donovan said.

"Obviously, the public is hurting right now and we're not about to raise prices," he said.

EARNINGS HIT LOW POINT

Football ticket revenue for 2008 was the lowest since 2005, when UH earned $4.12 million. Last year, in the march to the Sugar Bowl, UH took in $5.85 million. UH had seven home games for all but the 2006 season, when it had eight.

Despite an increase of nearly 5,000 season tickets over 2007 to 27,585, average per-game attendance dropped from 41,325 to 33,691 in 2008, according to unaudited figures.

Average Rainbow Wahine volleyball attendance dropped from 6,452 in 2007 to 5,944 in 2008.

The athletic department generates about 83 percent of its $29.5 million operating budget. The remainder, about $4.6 million, comes from university general funds and goes for the operation of lower campus facilities ($1.4 million) and scholarship support ($3.2 million), according to UH.

One bright note for UH is expected to be a rise in its television/pay-per-view rights fees. For the 2007 season, UH received $2.54 million and is expected to receive approximately $2.61 million for 2008.

The difference, officials at UH and its partners, KFVE and Oceanic Time Warner Cable, said, came through a renegotiated contract and the debut of a special road games package for season ticket holders that brought in $320,958 to total sales of $4.1 million.

To entice season ticket renewals and new sales, UH and its partners made available a pay-per-view package of five of the six UH away games for $99 to season ticket holders, a 65 percent discount off the price to non-season ticket holders. Otherwise, Donovan said, "the pay-per-view sales mirrored our slump (at the box office)."

Donovan said the road game special for season ticket holders will be retained in 2009, though prices have yet to be set.

Oceanic is refunding approximately $115,000 to subscribers who were affected by satellite transmission problems early in the Fresno State and New Mexico State football games.

In addition, UH dropped some prices for family seating sections in selected end zone areas at Aloha Stadium and in the upper level for arena sports.