The state is in that delightful stage of preplanning for a new 35,000-seat sports stadium.
It’s delightful because state officials are like kids in front of a big easel, coloring in where everything can go with no real rules or responsibilities.
So like kids sketching in unicorns and flying turtles, the lawmakers this year were not grounded by hard and fast rules.
For instance, the bill written by state Sen. Glenn Wakai and Rep. David Tarnas doesn’t avoid coloring outside the lines.
Gov. David Ige has yet to sign the stadium bill, but during legislative hearings, his administration was all thumbs up in its approval.
The stadium will be run by the Stadium Authority, who, according to the new legislation, will have to publicly provide financial disclosure statements. That should be a step toward keeping a check on conflicts of interest among members of what will be a powerful board.
As the new legislation says: “The stadium authority shall have sole jurisdiction over the development of the stadium development district.”
The scheme is that the project shall be split into two parts, build a stadium and then build a bunch of condos and hotels around it. The thinking is that the money from the home construction will pay for the stadium. Not addressed is how you get some profitable businesses to put up the money for a 35,000-seat stadium while they wait for you to break ground on new condos.
That is also how the now-abandoned city rail plans were supposed to go. Private business would put up the money for the train in exchange for a long-term lease on the train.
This reminds me of stories I have heard of folks standing on New York street corners offering to get you $100 tomorrow if you give them $20 today.
The state has already set up what looks like a well- organized bureaucracy. Just last week the stadium board, which has taken to calling itself the New Aloha Stadium Entertainment District (NASED), said in a release that it has authorized demolition of the stadium, probably by the second quarter of next year.
And it also voted “to move forward in selecting the best location of the new stadium within the NASED site.”
The board says it will take months to plan for demolition and a memorabilia collection and last visit to the old stadium.
Timing is everything. While the needed new laws to power up the new stadium authority are awaiting Gov. Ige’s pen, the stadium board is readying plans to blow up the old steel stadium.
Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays. Reach him at 808onpolitics@gmail.com.
Correction: An earlier version of this column mistakenly said the bill would allow the state to take 5% of all stadium receipts.