Three years ago, a consultant hired by the state said it would take at least $200 million in health and safety repairs just to keep aging Aloha Stadium functional for another 20 years.

That price tag, consultants warned, would escalate significantly with each year that the work was put off, and last year said the meter was at $300 million and rising, not counting $121 million for disability improvements.

That’s not for fancy upgrades or enhanced, sparkling amenities, you understand, just basic keep-it-still-standing-in-a-stiff-wind-type stuff.

So, what are we to make of another goose egg that the Legislature says it is willing to invest for the coming fiscal year?

The Aloha Stadium Authority was told at Thursday’s meeting that its request for $15 million for repairs for the upcoming fiscal year was met with a shoulder shrug at the Capitol.

A familiar one, it seems, since a $19 million request for fiscal year 2016 and $11 million for fiscal 2017 were also turned down, officials have said.

The optimistic view, held by some on the appointed, volunteer nine-member authority, is that it is a further sign that the lawmakers “don’t believe in wasting money on a deteriorating building,” because they are in favor of erecting a shiny new one, a couple members said, hopefully.

The pessimistic view is that as time marches on and sticker shock grows, there might be no new one coming. Just an eventual pile of rubble when the rust finally prevails.

If there is to be a new stadium, consultants have said it is at least five to seven years — and well upwards of $325 million (in 2017 dollars) — away. A price tag that mounts with each passing year as construction costs rise, but still well ahead of what it will end up taking to keep patching up the stadium for decades.

Costs that could be offset by ancillary development pegged to dovetail with the arrival of stadium-adjacent rail, stadium officials envision.

The Legislature’s last major cash outlay for Aloha Stadium’s future was $10 million last year for an environmental impact statement and master planning, officials said. The EIS has yet to be awarded and the process from award to completion could take a year or more.

Then comes a request for proposals, then … well, being a government contract this could take a while considering we are almost four years into just this part of the process.

In the meantime, as Aloha Stadium heads toward its 44th year of operation, the state’s largest entertainment venue is not all that different from a number of other age-challenged edifices in the state where maintenance has been deferred.

Authority chairman Ross Yamasaki said, “We understand the Legislature has a tough job. They have to balance the needs of a whole state: schools, prisons, hospitals … and we’re just one line item in that budget. So, I think, from the authority’s point of view, we are really appreciative of stadium management and what they are doing because they are scrambling to make do with what they’ve got.”

The stadium has adopted industry-standard two-year recurring structural inspections. And stadium manager Scott Chan has counseled that while the facility has seen its best days, it remains safe and constantly monitored.

Meanwhile, a report last year reminded that time is not the facility’s ally, noting, Aloha Stadium has “… served its useful life and is now a liability to fan experience, a potential danger to public health and safety and a financial burden for maintenance and operations.”

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.