Rodney Okai is a die-hard University of Hawai'i men's basketball fan who never misses a game, but when his wife or son can't attend, he shares their tickets with friends, often making a drive for the cross-island hand-off.

Now, under a new system to debut next month, Okai will be able to transfer — or even resell — those tickets online.

"It is gonna revolutionize what we're doing from a ticket standpoint," said John McNamara, UH associate athletic director.

The system, which UH said it hopes to launch for baseball and men's volleyball in mid-April, would be among the forefront in college athletics and similar to that used by the San Francisco Giants and other professional teams, McNamara said.

Under the system, for which software is now being installed, McNamara said season-ticket holders who have conflicting commitments will be able to manage their ticket accounts online. They will be able to designate their tickets to friends, who can print out an 8- by 10-inch page with bar-code that will be scanned at the event's entrance.

Or, the season ticket holder may elect to return the ticket to the school's online ticket pool for resale. If the ticket sells, a yet to be determined portion of the price will be credited to the season ticket holder's account, McNamara said.

McNamara said all UH ticket venues, including Aloha Stadium, will be equipped with scanners to cut down on will-call lines.

When his family can't use the tickets, Okai said, "this is going to make it more convenient." Okai said doesn't plan to try and resell his tickets but "I'm for anything that will help UH get more people in the stands or get more money."

McNamara said, "The reason we want to launch it in mid-April is that we want to give folks a chance to experiment with it during the latter parts of men's volleyball and the baseball seasons and get them familiar with the Web site. Then, we'll do a full-scale launch for football and women's volleyball (in the fall)."

Eventually, McNamara said, all ticketed UH events will be part of the online system.

McNamara said some potential season-ticket customers have told the school they were hesitant to buy because they didn't know if they would be able to attend enough games to make the purchase worthwhile. "Under this system, they can put (unused) tickets back in the system for resale or designate them to their friends," McNamara said.

Along with making season-ticket packages more attractive, UH hopes the system will attract last-minute buyers who might want to attend an event but fear better seats will be already sold out.

For example, there were 4,345 ticket distributed for the penultimate game of the UH-Southern California baseball series last week but turnstile attendance was 3,481.

Even with the new system, McNamara said, "we'll keep the old systems in place. (Fans) can purchase (tickets) over the phone, by mail or through the ticket window. What is being upgraded are the online opportunities."

In advance of the new system, McNamara said UH will offer instruction to fans on how to use the new options and set up sites at UH events.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com.