At Halawa, new Aloha Stadium holds promise

At some point, repairing and renovating an aging facility ceases being a strategy for using resources to their fullest and becomes the practice of throwing good money after bad. It seems that point has been reached with the Aloha Stadium, and the attention of state officials must turn toward demolishing the rusted structure and building a new one.

The precise configuration of the stadium, as well as its seating capacity, are questions that demand further community discussion, judging by the outcry at last week’s meeting about two competing plans for a new stadium. But it seems plain that the timing is right for new stadium, not a rehabilitated veteran structure, and that the current site in Halawa still makes the most sense.

Taking up the first question, the structural damage that plagues the stadium, now approaching its 40th birthday, has been well-known for years. Its life has been extended somewhat with short-term repairs — a $10 million program of "health and safety improvements" is in the works, including replacing handrails, structural reinforcement and replacement of the structural coating.

Any further outlay of funds on saving the current facility, however, seems ill-advised. The one titanic change in circumstances in recent years is the advance of the city’s rail project, so the timing seems right for redevelopment at one of the system’s major transit stops.

Building a new stadium as part of transit-oriented development would pose the fewest constraints on design, whereas trying to jerry-rig the configuration of residential towers and commercial space around an existing building would surely limit options.

Further, the federal grant of the Halawa property includes a covenant restricting its use to public recreation. Lifting that covenant is by no means guaranteed, so carrying on with plans for a new stadium at the same spot eliminates a possible complication.

Finally, the University of Hawaii wants a larger share of stadium revenues and there’s broad support for such a change, one that gives UH more of a voice in governance and certainly more money to support athletics. If the stadium becomes more closely allied with UH, it’s natural that UH officials, as well as the university community, would prefer having the stadium closer to its flagship campus.

However, there is simply no location there that adequately accommodates traffic. Anyone who has tried to get in and out of the lower-campus Stan Sheriff Center knows what a mess even its comparatively small crowds can cause on midtown roads.

The fact that UH-Manoa is not on the rail route — at least not for the foreseeable future — adds to the logic of selecting Halawa, which is. And Halawa is more centrally located, close to population centers and the intersect of three freeways.

Turning to the proposals for the facility itself, Aloha Stadium hosted a public meeting to draw feedback on a pair of conceptual plans. In June, the New York company Foley & Lardner recommended a "30,000 to 35,000-seat stadium on the lower portion of the (current) stadium site." Its cost was estimated at $132 million to $192 million.

Then last week, Gensler, a design and architectural firm based in Los Angeles, released its own report, commissioned by UH with $15,000 in donated funds. That document pictured a 30,585-seat multipurpose facility, to cost at least $165 million; adding a partial roof would cost an estimated $25 million more. That report did not recommend any particular site.

There was a lot to like about the clean, adaptable design Gensler presented, one that would use knock-out panels to configure the seating for different sports, appropriate for high-school team use and with floor-seating options for concert events.

Much of the protest last week vented fan disappointment that Hawaii would no longer have a 50,000-seat stadium, on the order of a facility needed for major-league events. That discussion should continue in the coming months, before the Legislature convenes to consider serious proposals.

But advocates for a larger stadium will have to make the case that this state, which rarely has filled Aloha Stadium to capacity, would benefit from the added seating. If there is a real chance Hawaii could lure big-city athletics and frequent blockbuster entertainment events, the evidence has seemed lacking so far.

In the meantime, let’s move ahead on saying aloha to the old Aloha Stadium. That’s a nice name, one that could be bequeathed to its successor: a smartly designed and efficiently managed stadium that can serve for decades to come.