Out-of-the-box idea 1: Neutral site games for UH

One part of my plan to help raise revenue and boost recruiting for UH:

The 49ers will be playing in a new stadium in Santa Clara in the near future. That is a PRIME recruiting area for UH and there are are LOT of UH fans in the area (I see some of them every other year at SJSU games).

Whenever a new football stadium opens they need to use it for more than just NFL games to help generate money. The Dallas Cowboys' new stadium hosts 2 or so college football teams every year, the teams earning $4+ million, and the Redskins stadium hosted BSU/Virginia Tech this year and the teams earned over $3.5 million. The 49ers stadium will be looking to host college football games, and those games will be *events* that will get a lot of media attention and fans will flock to the new stadium.

Let us establish UH as one of the teams that is associated with that stadium! UH can give up 1 home game a year to play a neutral site game at the stadium. UH can contact *Pac-12* teams that will be interested in playing in the Bay Area for recruiting purposes. Remember, with the split in divisions for the Pac-12 there will be 2-4 Pac-12 teams that will not play a game in the Bay Area every year. Those teams will want to play in the Bay Area and UH can provide them with a solution for that!

This is the drawback for UH:

1. One less home game. Instead of having 7 or 8 home games, UH will have 6 or 7 home games. That is a loss of revenue, but with the difficulty in scheduling UH might be playing a D-IAA team that doesn't draw many fans anyway.

2. Increased travel. But we are talking about the BAY AREA, which has easy direct flights from Honolulu. With the WAC6 only having *1* California team and with very few nonconference games in Californai, UH needs more California games or recruiting will be hurt badly.

These are some of the benefits for UH:

1. HUGE monetary benefits. The going rate for a non-AQ school is between $1.25 million and $1.5 million, but instead of playing at an SEC stadium to earn that money UH will be playing at a neutral site against Arizona, Arizona State, Utah, or Colorado...whichever teams are shut out of Bay Area games due to the way the way the conference schedules their games. By the way, that number could be going up to $2 million with the revenue projections I've seen.

2. Pac-12 school at a neutral site is an attractive matchup that will get significant media attention. Recruits around the country will pay attention to the game, and since it will be designated a *UH* home game, UH will own the TV rights. If UH is indy, that would be worth a couple of millions. If UH is part of the WAC, they can still get $1-2 million like BSU got this year.

3. Pac-12 schools would love to play a game at 49ers stadium because it would help their Bay Area recruiting and give them a greater national profile. The 2 Pac-12 teams that are shut out of the Bay Area every 2 years will be the perfect targets for UH. The going rate for AQ schools in neutral site games is about $3 million, so they will be getting a HUGE payday that won't be coming from UH. What Pac-12 school is going to turn down $3 million plus a chance to keep their Bay Area recruiting going?

4. These are *winnable* games for UH, they aren't flying to Florida to play at someone else's home stadium. Winning these types of games is what UH needs to build its credibility. The only way for UH to get respect is to WIN...and we aren't talking about against D-IAA schools or NMSU, SJSU, etc.

To summarize:
1. UH comes out ahead financially.
2. UH gets a huge recruiting boost.
3. UH gets to play one division of the Pac-12 on a rotation basis.

*If* either of the LA NFL stadiums are built, UH could target those stadiums also. Maybe those would be better than the 49ers stadium for UH recruiting.

Note: With 2 teams being shut out of the Bay Area for 2-year stretches, UH could play one of those teams (say, Arizona) one year and the other one (say, Arizona State) the other year. Then the next 2-year period 2 other Pac-12 teams will be shut out of the Bay Area and UH could rotate through those teams.