The Aloha Stadium Authority said it plans to make a public recommendation next month on what it sees as the best course for the future of the well-worn 42-year-old facility.
The nine-member board emerged from a nearly three-hour executive session Thursday and said it will discuss the options in open session during a Jan. 12 meeting before issuing a recommendation.
The recommendation will come nearly three and a half years into a process to decide the fate of the state’s biggest entertainment venue.
Outgoing chairman Charles Toguchi said the authority is awaiting a report from its consultants on the state of the stadium before voting. Engineers and architects hired by the state to study the 50,000-seat facility briefed the authority on preliminary findings in the closed-door session. Committees from both houses of the State Legislature have also been briefed and, this week, toured the stadium.
Options include continuing to shell out for upkeep and maintenance of the current facility that estimates have said could run as high as $300 million — the cost of a new stadium — building a new facility on the nearly 100-acre parcel or building on a different site. Also at issue, if a new stadium were to be built, is the size.
They will also have to decide what role transit-oriented development might play with the adjacent rail station and whether to solicit proposals from developers.
Two earlier reports, one commissioned by former University of Hawaii athletic director Ben Jay, recommended facilities with smaller seating capacities than Aloha Stadium currently has. The study commissioned by Jay was not site specific.
Currently the state only funds what is termed “health and safety” work at the stadium.
Once the authority issues its recommendation it will be up to Gov. David Ige and legislators whether to give the green light to proceed with a request for proposal or go in another direction.
Toguchi will remain on the authority at least through June 30, 2017, the end of his current term, but asked to step down from the chairmanship for personal reasons. Authority members selected Ross Yamasaki, 49, to replace him beginning Jan. 1, 2017. Yamasaki, who is vice president of Capitol Consultants, was a member of the University of Hawaii’s 1989 Aloha Bowl team.
“He’ll do a good job,” Toguchi said.
