The University of Hawai'i athletic department needs a reality check.

Given that football is always best when played before a large live crowd of loyal fans, what does it say when your most loyal and lucrative fan base of all — the season-ticket holder — steadily abandons you?

Officials wouldn't comment on the exodus, but the decline is real. Season-ticket holders to UH football games are just saying, "Aloha." Over the past five years since 2002, season-ticket renewals have dropped steadily from 23,093 to 16,300.

UH Athletic Director Herman Frazier says individual fans have their reasons for not renewing. But Frazier is also hoping that when the box office opens for new purchases next week, a surge in new sales will make up for the loss of customers.

That might happen, but usually when people don't renew, it indicates a problem.

Since 9/11, security issues have made going to games less convenient. In the past year, fan drunkenness occasionally came perilously close to soccer-type hooliganism. And then there's the cost of the season tickets themselves. An annual package of four to eight premium seats can run from $3,500 to $15,000. And it's going up to $20,000 in 2007.

Does that sound appealing? Or does it make you want to watch games in front of your big-screen TV?

Fans want and deserve value for their entertainment dollar.

If Frazier wants to reverse the downward trend, he needs to care about more than whether the team is a winner. It's time to pay greater attention to ensuring the experience of a UH football game is a winning one.