Rush-hour Huskies game Nov. 18 draws backlash at UW

When the Huskies face off against the UCLA Bruins on Nov. 18, the nationally televised game will begin at a most unusual hour, for Seattle at least: in the middle of a Thursday evening commute.

The game is expected to snarl traffic through Montlake, disrupt afternoon and evening classes at the university, close clinics at the University of Washington Medical Center and play havoc with the workday schedules of thousands of fans.

Is it worth it?

"Well, we'll see," said interim President Phyllis Wise.

In April, when the UW made the decision to play on a Thursday at 5 p.m., the Huskies hoped national TV coverage on ESPN would spotlight quarterback Jake Locker and help put the team back on the college football map.

But April's high hopes have been dashed in October — Locker no longer is considered a favorite for the Heisman Trophy, and the Huskies have had a lackluster season.

Meanwhile, the headaches involved in putting on a football game during Thursday rush hour have been a surprise to the university. "I don't think we were totally ready for all the repercussions," Wise said.

The biggest expense by far is getting fans to the game. UW plans to kick about half of its 9,000 parking-permit holders out of their spaces that day, making room for at least some football fans. To get the rest to Husky Stadium, the athletic department has chartered 340 private buses to carry 20,000 people, at a cost of about $395,000.

Typically, on a Saturday game, the department pays King County Metro $80,000 to provide a free shuttle service from park-and-ride lots to the stadium. But at 5 p.m. on a Thursday, "we just don't have the buses," said King County transportation spokeswoman Linda Thielke. "It's the wrong time for us."

On top of the expense, the timing is a hassle for rescheduling classes because Nov. 18 is sandwiched in between two other Thursday holidays — Veterans Day on Nov. 11 and Thanksgiving Day on Nov. 25.

"It's very hard to shift classes to one Thursday or another, and it's not good to skip three classes in a row," Wise said.

Still, university officials say the game is an opportunity to showcase the school's athletics and academics to a national audience.

As part of the ESPN package, the UW will be able to air a 30-second commercial about the university's strengths. Last year, on average, more than 3.5 million viewers tuned in to each of the Thursday college-football games, according to ESPN.

"I think the broader the audience that knows about the University of Washington, the better off we are," Wise said, noting that high-profile sports programs also tend to bring in more college applicants.

"Sure, it's the football program on TV, but the UW is going to be mentioned scores and scores of times during the telecast," university spokesman Norm Arkans said.

But pathology professor Stephen Schwartz questioned whether a nationally televised football game does anything to enhance the school's academic image. "The UW is certainly not short of people who want to study political science and pre-law," among others, he said.

The decision to hold a Thursday night game was made by former President Mark Emmert, and most faculty members didn't realize how it would affect classes. About 1,500 classes and labs are scheduled after noon on Thursday, Faculty Senate president J.W. Harrington said.

The problem is more acute for faculty than students because only about 15 percent of students have parking passes — the rest live on or near campus, or already use public transportation.

Professor Patricia Kramer teaches a biological anthropology class to 337 freshmen at 1:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays. Because she has to pick up her school-age children immediately after class ends, she always parks on campus.

But she won't be able to use her pricey parking pass on game day, and she may have to cancel the class so she can pick up her children on time. She had planned to teach about human variability in resistance to infectious diseases — a vital topic.

"I'm a huge football fan," Kramer said. "[But] it isn't such a good thing that we compromise on our core mission on this afternoon to allow football fans to come to campus."

The administration has said it will open up a few spaces to faculty members who can't find any other way to get to school.

Many faculty members say the school should have consulted with them before making the decision, and made announcements sooner about the game.

"The general sense I get is ... that the administration has finally awakened to the mess they've created, and are now working very hard to solve the problem," biochemistry professor Stephen Hauschka wrote in an e-mail.

Thursday evening football games have been a staple of TV sports broadcasts for some time, and it's likely that when the Pacific-10 Conference renegotiates its football broadcasting contract next year, there will be pressure on the school to put Thursday games on the schedule. But Wise said the UW would consider doing so only after examining how many fans come to the UCLA game, and how many admissions inquiries the game drew — a number that's going to be difficult to quantify, she acknowledged.

She said she does not expect any Thursday games for the 2011 season, and if the UW's Board of Regents approves a business plan to renovate Husky Stadium, the school will play its games in Qwest Field in 2012.

The Huskies haven't played a Thursday game since Nov. 23, 1939 — Thanksgiving Day. On that day, 25,000 people watched the Huskies beat Oregon, 20-13.

For fans, the game's timing means some will have to cut out of work early, or take the day off.

Aaron White, a season-ticket holder, will take a vacation day from his job as a sales representative for Johnson Barrow Inc. He said he and his wife plan to set up for a tailgate party around 8 a.m., and make a day of it. Of the 20 or 30 friends who normally come by to tailgate with them, "five of my buddies are going to be taking the day off," White said. "A lot of people are taking a half-day."

White said he doesn't mind taking a vacation day for a Husky game — he's looking forward to Locker's last home game, and the team's matchup against former UW coach Rick Neuheisel.

"That stadium is going to be wired up for that game," said White, who predicted the Huskies will win, 35-3.

Katherine Long: 206-464-2219 or klong@seattletimes.com