Looking a little grim

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Arcumfortis
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Looking a little grim

Post by Arcumfortis »

I’ve been a seasons ticket holder since the late 1980’s. So I’ve experienced the ups and downs of the program and always felt like there would be some way we would recover from the down times - be they the Von Appen down times - the Chow down times - or any other down times. Somehow the current situation feels different. The team is obviously struggling and the brand of football played (so far) is hard to watch. Ching field is a high school level venue and not anywhere close to D1 standard. Hard to imagine how we can compete for high quality recruits moving ahead. The PA announcer’s between play color programming is not good and the PA sound quality is terrible. I can’t stand the PA announcer’s growl that accompanies opponent’s third down plays anymore. It was interesting the first few time but the repetition every time gets lame. This is not coming from a complainer or a “hater” but from a loyal long term fan who has hung in there through thick and thin. It’s just not a good experience currently and I don’t know where it goes from here. For the first time in almost 30 years I’m asking myself why I am spending my Saturday evening at the game rather than somewhere else. I feel support for TC. I think there is a chance that he will be the HC for many years and create an environment of long term stability and success - I just hope he can find enough success soon enough to support this possibility. We can’t even fill a 9000 seat stadium anymore - that doesn’t bode well unless something changes. Community support and political will (stadium) is needed. But I’m not sure we have enough of either anymore, and there are other legitimate community priorities that draw away from waning interest in the football program. I truly hope I am wrong and that we can climb out of this down draft. I dunno.

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Re: Looking a little grim

Post by cabanalane »

Well said, the TC Ching looks a bit empty, and it was homecoming too. Rolo hardly broke 30K at Aloha Stadium and he was winning/good.

In the last "Call the Coach" show, Timmy Chang said he got a "20 year plan."

We all cheered for Chang, and want him to success. I hope Hawaii's football issues does not wear him out.

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Re: Looking a little grim

Post by sarvicdar »

I think behind every successful football program and head coach is a good athletic director. It makes sense. Tomey and Wagner had Stan Sherrif, who's football back ground is impressive as a collegiate, and NFL player and and as a head coach for 20 some years. The current HC's have Matlin, who's football experience as a player or coach is non existent. When you look at the Warriors grim future it stands to reason that Matlin doesn't know the landscape as his predecessor and its easy to see how the Warriors are slipping towards oblivion.

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Re: Looking a little grim

Post by UnBiasFan »

Like the newspaper on the porch or the landline phone, the subscriber base is dwindling. It’s not an exciting product. The branding still has some residual value like Sears or Kmart. Then you wake up one day and they are gone.

People say the PPV model is working. Well, the day will come when it is not. No fan base and the core followers are diminishing. I can actually see the program being cancelled like a bankrupt company. But I know there is absolutely nothing I can do about. Mines is just an opinion in a blog. No one cares. I can yell at the top of my lungs that rip off prices for PPV and metal seats is killing off the fans. Winning not going to fix this. This restaurant is going to close. I got bright idea, charge for shoyu and ketchup. Don’t care. I still got NFL.

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Re: Looking a little grim

Post by Txbow »

Arcumfortis wrote: Sun Sep 18, 2022 10:23 am I’ve been a seasons ticket holder since the late 1980’s. So I’ve experienced the ups and downs of the program and always felt like there would be some way we would recover from the down times - be they the Von Appen down times - the Chow down times - or any other down times. Somehow the current situation feels different. The team is obviously struggling and the brand of football played (so far) is hard to watch. Ching field is a high school level venue and not anywhere close to D1 standard. Hard to imagine how we can compete for high quality recruits moving ahead. The PA announcer’s between play color programming is not good and the PA sound quality is terrible. I can’t stand the PA announcer’s growl that accompanies opponent’s third down plays anymore. It was interesting the first few time but the repetition every time gets lame. This is not coming from a complainer or a “hater” but from a loyal long term fan who has hung in there through thick and thin. It’s just not a good experience currently and I don’t know where it goes from here. For the first time in almost 30 years I’m asking myself why I am spending my Saturday evening at the game rather than somewhere else. I feel support for TC. I think there is a chance that he will be the HC for many years and create an environment of long term stability and success - I just hope he can find enough success soon enough to support this possibility. We can’t even fill a 9000 seat stadium anymore - that doesn’t bode well unless something changes. Community support and political will (stadium) is needed. But I’m not sure we have enough of either anymore, and there are other legitimate community priorities that draw away from waning interest in the football program. I truly hope I am wrong and that we can climb out of this down draft. I dunno.
Great post. I also am a long time UH fan since early 80's. Was a season ticket holder until 1999 when I left Hawaii for Texas. Your post about sums everything up to the point where sadly the state of UH football is today. I hope I am wrong in saying that its just a matter of time now. The obvious is inevitable.....

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Re: Looking a little grim

Post by Txbow »

UnBiasFan wrote: Mon Sep 19, 2022 12:26 am Like the newspaper on the porch or the landline phone, the subscriber base is dwindling. It’s not an exciting product. The branding still has some residual value like Sears or Kmart. Then you wake up one day and they are gone.

People say the PPV model is working. Well, the day will come when it is not. No fan base and the core followers are diminishing. I can actually see the program being cancelled like a bankrupt company. But I know there is absolutely nothing I can do about. Mines is just an opinion in a blog. No one cares. I can yell at the top of my lungs that rip off prices for PPV and metal seats is killing off the fans. Winning not going to fix this. This restaurant is going to close. I got bright idea, charge for shoyu and ketchup. Don’t care. I still got NFL.
Nice analogy using Sears or Kmart. Couldn't hammer the point home better any other way.

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Re: Looking a little grim

Post by SundayJam »

We are in this predicament because:

1. We built a designed-to-rust stadium in the 80's.

2. We hired Sears/Kmart type coaches in Von Appen and Chow.

3. A pandemic laid waste to every aspect of your experience.

Hawaiian football is a grass roots product. We could never be labelled as some flash-in-the-pan corporate gimmick. Was Rolovich the best choice after Chow? Maybe not. We should have stuck with the original product: McMackin. The current state of the programs goes back to that termination.

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Re: Looking a little grim

Post by cabanalane »

We also have to add that sometimes it's no one's fault. Football is loosing interest with the fan base. Moms don't want their kids to play football, like the old days. The concussion thing is real. We used to play football at recess. Kids don't really do that now like we did, for that 15 minutes. 5 on 5 or how many guys you can split evenly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOKbD3jumko

Football may become a Sears or Kmart. Ok, maybe not. Best Buy perhaps.

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Re: Looking a little grim

Post by My3Cats »

Doesn't help when our State government leaders don't lead the charge with the UH athletic program. They are only in it for the convenient photo ops when something interests them, but no dollars for needed funding.
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Re: Looking a little grim

Post by st808_ »

cabanalane wrote: Sun Sep 18, 2022 11:58 am
In the last "Call the Coach" show, Timmy Chang said he got a "20 year plan."
duquesne victory is chang's first step in becoming the coach with the most wins ever for hawaii. just hope it's over 100 for the next 20 years.

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Re: Looking a little grim

Post by Palolo_2LA »

sarvicdar wrote: Sun Sep 18, 2022 9:10 pm I think behind every successful football program and head coach is a good athletic director. It makes sense. Tomey and Wagner had Stan Sherrif, who's football back ground is impressive as a collegiate, and NFL player and and as a head coach for 20 some years. The current HC's have Matlin, who's football experience as a player or coach is non existent. When you look at the Warriors grim future it stands to reason that Matlin doesn't know the landscape as his predecessor and its easy to see how the Warriors are slipping towards oblivion.
Your logic is faulty....99% of ADs never played college sports, let alone college FB. They are executive types with experience with fund raising, marketing as it relates to sports. What UH needs is better OL play, to give the QB and WRs time for the plays to develop. They currently have a porous OL and that's being nice about it.

The marketing aspect, business acumen has aways lacked at UH when it comes to ADs, bc the well connected , small group of decision makers tag their guy, which is irrespective of ability. Again, small pond aka island politics. Also, the pay crappy, which limits the talent pool.
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Re: Looking a little grim

Post by poidog »

cabanalane wrote: Sun Sep 18, 2022 11:58 am Well said, the TC Ching looks a bit empty, and it was homecoming too. Rolo hardly broke 30K at Aloha Stadium and he was winning/good.

In the last "Call the Coach" show, Timmy Chang said he got a "20 year plan."

We all cheered for Chang, and want him to success. I hope Hawaii's football issues does not wear him out.
tickets issued were like 8891 or something, so there weren't many tickets left to buy. what's really hard when the stadium is so small and nearly all tickets have been accounted for is that if even a small amount of people decide at the last minute to not come, it ends up being a big percentage of the crowd and those tickets don't get redistributed. I have 8 tickets for my group and 3 had to drop out because of a covid outbreak at home.

Your point about Rolo is a good one, however. I don't think he ever really endeared himself to the core Hawaii fanbase and was a little too "out there" for some people, but he won games and it didn't move the needle that much in terms of attendance. I think if Chang can rebuild the team and the stadium situation improves (Ching increasing to 17000 next season, NASED finishing at some point in the future) that it can be better than what was under Rolo. But the first order of business is to recover from the Graham debacle and the mass exodus of talent. Our wishful thinking was that it could be done in one off-season, but it's starting to look like that was very unrealistic.

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Re: Looking a little grim

Post by poidog »

Palolo_2LA wrote: Mon Sep 19, 2022 12:33 pm
sarvicdar wrote: Sun Sep 18, 2022 9:10 pm I think behind every successful football program and head coach is a good athletic director. It makes sense. Tomey and Wagner had Stan Sherrif, who's football back ground is impressive as a collegiate, and NFL player and and as a head coach for 20 some years. The current HC's have Matlin, who's football experience as a player or coach is non existent. When you look at the Warriors grim future it stands to reason that Matlin doesn't know the landscape as his predecessor and its easy to see how the Warriors are slipping towards oblivion.
Your logic is faulty....99% of ADs never played college sports, let alone college FB. They are executive types with experience with fund raising, marketing as it relates to sports. What UH needs is better OL play, to give the QB and WRs time for the plays to develop. They currently have a porous OL and that's being nice about it.

The marketing aspect, business acumen has aways lacked at UH when it comes to ADs, bc the well connected , small group of decision makers tag their guy, which is irrespective of ability. Again, small pond aka island politics. Also, the pay crappy, which limits the talent pool.
The logic may not be there, but he's right about the AD situation. Matlin is a great assistant AD, but doesn't have the courage required to be the main guy in a situation like this. There's no way that they should have entered this season with only 9000 seats - not with the state having such a budget surplus that they are giving out extra refunds like they are.

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Re: Looking a little grim

Post by bigislandkurt »

...and that is why JUNE JONES was the answer. Immediate return to an exiting brand of football and connections in this state and football world that Matlin and all UH naysayers could only dream about. Oh well. No can cry now. Gotta support Timmy and the brand of football UH administrators wanted.
Last edited by bigislandkurt on Mon Sep 19, 2022 1:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Looking a little grim

Post by locomoko »

cabanalane wrote: Sun Sep 18, 2022 11:58 am
In the last "Call the Coach" show, Timmy Chang said he got a "20 year plan."
I'm forever supportive of the program and trying to be supportive of the coach. But I heard him say he has a 20-year plan, and I find that hard to believe other than the mortgage he just took on.

Planning 20 years in today's changing times (and especially in college football) is naive. Average tenure of a college football coach is 3.8 years. Please have a 4-year plan, and actually execute on that.

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