Figuring out how to spend a windfall amounting to a half million dollars is much more fun than the battle Herman Frazier usually wages, trying to make ends meet at the deficit-plagued University of Hawai'i athletic department.

So it's been a rare opportunity for the athletic director to broker a deal with Toyota Motors, which needed a venue for a convention event.

On Saturday, Les Murakami Stadium will accommodate about 6,000 Toyota conventioneers at a private concert by rock superstars Aerosmith. In return for the $500,000 fee, Toyota gets exclusive use to the university's lower campus, to assure guests of adequate parking and to control access to the stadium.

The fact that the concert will disrupt normal use of the lower campus for about half the day has ruffled feathers in other departments because athletics will get to keep the proceeds from the deal.

That reaction may be understandable, considering that money for facilities upkeep is short all over the Manoa campus. And the combined luck and skill enabling Frazier to negotiate a deal far more lucrative than the typical UH facility rentals has drawn out more critics from other departments that want a share.

However, departments generally do get to keep proceeds from rentals, and as long as the money is spent responsibly, there's no reason to penalize athletics for this fluke.

In fact, spending part of the profits on repaying the department's loan from the UH — a $1 million interest-free note issued in 2003 — would be one reasonable approach.

Toyota's boon to the UH could end up being a win-win for the entire campus, after all.