Soon after the Aloha Stadium Authority accepted a structural engineering consultant’s report on the state of the 45-year-old facility Thursday in Halawa, officials made a beeline for Kapolei.
Perhaps not since he played quarterback at Kaiser High and Willamette University in the 1970s had Stadium Manager Scott Chan moved so quickly or with as much urgency of purpose.
The mission for Chan and an Authority delegation was to apprise the University of Hawaii Board of Regents and administration meeting that day of the 66-page report, answer questions and allay fears in a special briefing.
“They assured the regents that the stadium was safe,” said attorney Jeff Portnoy, who requested the meeting as chairman of the regents’ Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics. “My two concerns — and I can’t speak for others — were (No. 1), safety for the university’s participants and fans and, two, hopefully, along the way, that we can ensure that we have a place to play football that is not at Roosevelt High School.”
UH was then-Gov. John A. Burns’ prime inspiration for the construction of Aloha Stadium, which opened its soon-to-rust gates in 1975. And Rainbow Warriors football remains the facility’s largest in-stadium client.
So, a united front is the best thing both parties have going for them when it comes to meeting the common goal of getting a new stadium in a timely manner.
But, until recently, you sometimes got the feeling that while the state could, perhaps, barely afford one new stadium, there were parallel tracks of thought that had yet to meet and common ground yet to be trod.
Amid speculation in the state over which of several potential sites would be the best choice, both entities have had separately commissioned conceptual drawings of what a new facility could look like sitting on the shelves for a couple of years. One suited for the 98-acre footprint in Halawa and the other, while not site specific, well suited for an urban area.
Meanwhile, in the absence of a decision of which path the state might go, the need has grown for basic health and safety repairs and rust mitigation just to keep the present stadium operable. Prices have mounted to the point that the Stadium Authority said it is requesting $30 million over the next two years.
There are still a multitude of questions about the stadium’s much-needed replacement to be answered. Portnoy said, “I would like more definitiveness on some of those things. But I completely understand why they (Stadium Authority) can’t give it, because it is not within their control. Right now, it is solely in the hands of the Legislature.”
Portnoy said, “They were positive about how things are moving at the Legislature and I think we’re gonna know within the next 60 days whether a stadium is going to get funded or not. How long that is going to take (after that), to fund it, build it (well), I don’t think anybody knows at the moment.”
What does appear to be finally emerging, however, is an understanding that being on the same page at this juncture best suits all concerned.
That was underlined Monday at the Capitol when the UH administration offered testimony in favor of Senate Bill 1530, which would create a redevelopment district surrounding the stadium site as a way of facilitating the replacement.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
