LAS VEGAS >> University of Hawaii athletic director Craig Angelos said it is imperative for a new stadium to be built in Halawa by the opening of the 2028 football season.

“To me, I think, it’s absolutely essential for the future of our football program to have it built,” Angelos said. “The reason I say that is we need a first-class stadium … to continue to stay in our league, and even, maybe have other opportunities for growth in our leagues.”

The Mountain West, of which UH is a football-only member, is discussing several scenarios, including implementing minimum requirements. Most of UH’s other sports compete in the Big West.

After a deteriorating Aloha Stadium was self-condemned for spectator-attended events in December 2020, UH was forced to retrofit its on-campus Ching Complex into a venue for home football games.

But Ching, which seats 15,300, is considered inadequate as a permanent venue. The visiting team uses a cordoned-off section of neighboring Les Murakami Stadium as part of its “locker room.” There also are not enough permanent rest rooms for spectators. With an adjacent grass area being converted into a facility for the soccer and track teams, the Warriors are the Mountain West’s only football team without a separate practice field.

Angelos said UH is widely viewed as being “in the bottom of the league as it relates to our football facilities — practice facilities, as well as game facilities.”

He added: “I think the knock on our program right now is the uncertainty about our football facilities. I think it’s absolutely necessary we get a great football stadium.”

On July 31, New Aloha Stadium Entertainment District is expected to name the lone remaining bidder, Aloha Halawa District Partner, as the master developer to raze 46-year-old Aloha Stadium and build a replacement. There is a window of up to nine months to finalize a proposal. If all goes according to plan, the project can begin ahead of next summer, with a new stadium completed in 2028.

Angelos is hopeful there will not be any further delays or glitches to push back the project’s completion to 2030 or 2032.

“Even in 2028, they would have played in that temporary stadium for seven years,” Angelos said. “That’s an eternity for a coach, and very difficult to recruit to, and the whole thing.”

Angelos said his preference is to construct a new stadium at Halawa instead of UH “because we’re so land-locked on the lower campus right now.”

Instead, Angelos said, a proposal envisions UH eventually tearing down the temporary stadium to build a student-athlete performance center and two football practice fields. The center would include locker rooms, meeting rooms, offices, training tables, nutritional rooms for the football, soccer, track, softball and baseball programs.

“If we can get the student-athlete performance center and two football practice fields, as well as having a first-class football stadium out in Halawa, then our facilities would be as good as anybody’s in our league,” Angelos said. “Right now, it’s not even close. Everybody (else) has a student-athlete performance center.”

If the Halawa project falls apart and UH was forced to build a long-term stadium on campus, Angelos said, “we wouldn’t have any room for a performance center or any practice fields, The football team still would have the game field to practice on with no other opportunities in sight, similar to the way it is right now. You’d just have that one field to play and practice on.”

Angelos added: “I don’t think we can just stand down and not do anything (with facilities) and just continue to remain competitive. As I tell Timmy (Chang, UH’s head football coach), ‘We just can’t expect to be good on the field if we’re not good off the field.’ … We have to decide as a group, as a state, where we want to be. It’s bigger than me. I’m just the athletic director and the steward of the program right now. We have to come together — the state, the university, athletics — and where we want the football program to be.”