Sugar Bowl List Lawsuit; Names Removed

May 23, 2008 10:39 PM

Of the 70,000 fans at Sugar Bowl this past New Years, at least 550 got there for free, courtesy of Hawaii taxpayers. UH released most of their names Friday afternoon.

"We know we are a public entity and we need to be transparent," said Jim Donovan, UH's athletic director.

On the list were players, spouses, team and school staff and their children, band members, cheerleaders and others with various ties to UH.

Newly hired athletic director Jim Donovan had nothing to do with deciding who got to go, but he says it's typical of Hawaii's so-called "bowl culture," based on his time the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl.

"Bowl culture is you bring the team, you bring the coaches, their families, the players families, you bring administrators, corporate sponsors, you bring family of administrators," said Donovan.

UH released the list on the same day the Honolulu Advertiser filed a lawsuit claiming the university broke the open records law when it didn't released the list back in March.

"One can suspect that it might show something that the university did not want out or maybe they are just not competent enough to get the list in a timely fashion," said the paper's attorney Jeff Portnoy. "I don't know you'll have to ask them, but clearly they have done everything possible to delay the publication of this list."

The Advertiser says UH is still breaking the law by not releasing the entire list. 45 names were crossed out.

UH said the names were redacted in the list pending resolution of a claim by the HGEA that disclosure would be an invasion of privacy.

"They've deleted names we believe they were not entitled to delete,' said Jeff Portnoy. "We believe there are other names that are not on the list and crossed out."

Asked why some people might want their names off the list, UH Associate Athletic Director Carl Clapp said, "I just think at times there are some people who their privacy is very important to them and they hold it very close and so I'm guessing it would be a reason for them that maybe they don't want their name to be released with something."