By Kristen Consillio kconsillio@staradvertiser.com
Posted on February 17, 2017 12:05 am
Updated on February 17, 2017 at 10:29 am
The Hawai’i Convention Center today is unveiling $1.1 million in new flooring that can convert its 204,000-square-foot exhibition hall into courts for amateur and professional sporting events in an effort to diversify group business.
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A good idea though expensive for club volleyball. Also, the ceilings can be somewhat low for volleyball.
Have you been inside there exhibition halls? The space is huge and the ceiling is higher than than the bottom of the scoreboard that hangs over the court at the Stan Sheriff Center. Very cool!
Yeah, at least they can use this space for all sorts of different stuff during times they are not being used. With the location and ability to deal with the traffic and parking, great to see another option for sporting events here.
I’ve never been in there, don’t know anything about the place. But from outside it looks really big. Maybe some international events would attract business.
Yeah, uh huh. But local sports clubs can’t use the facility, just like local couples looking to get married, or local enterprises looking to secure use. The convention center isn’t for local’s use. They have to agree to be bumped on a moment’s notice.
Critical reader, perhaps you should be more than a critical thinker. You’re wrong about locals being able to use the facility. In fact the bulk of the teams playing in the tournament this weekend are local. If you ever had a child or know of someone who has a child playing club volleyball, hen you would know how MASSIVE some of the tournaments are on the mainland. The top clubs head off to the Junior Olympics every year in cities like Detroit, Minneapolis, Dallas Anaheim and many many more. Were talking teams by the hundreds. Each team with a dozen or so players traveling with families. Adds up to a lot of people, thousands of hotel room nights, many millions of dollars spent here. The investment in these courts was little more than a million bucks. And the first two events on the books have already generated more than that in revenue for the state. And finally to your comment about being “bumped” in a moments notice. Really? Pretty much every event at the convention center is booked years in advance. Funny how the “critical” always moan and complain. How about recognizing there is a huge market out there that has yet to be tapped? Clearly Miss Orton has and the HTA funded the idea. Game on!
I think what he meant was, if Joe Aloha wanted to have his wedding reception there, he would risk getting bumped, as this convention center is not catering to the locals with smaller venues.
Yes, I’m guessing the CC doesn’t want to host a wedding for 150 people. But if Joe Aloha wanted to bring in a group of say 1000 people for a full scale event, with dinner and entertainment etc, he probably could. That’s what Sony does every year for it’s Sony Open Pro-Am gala. There’s also the wedding expo and STEM conference both catering only to “local” people. So I’m guessing the argument isn’t that the CC doesn’t cater to locals. It’s likely more that tit’s not cost effective for the center to host small events. And frankly it’s doesn’t look good. Like the state high school basketball tournament being played in front of 7000 empty seats at the Blaisdell.
Well said, KG. I didn’t realize how HUGE club volleyball was. These tournaments bring thousands of people (players, coaches, parents) to one place. I think this idea was a good example of “forward thinking”. Portable bleachers for spectators would be great too! And I’ve been to a lot of events at the convention center, don’t recall ever being “bumped”.
agree. It is clear that the Convention Center will not attract many serious conventions. We over built this facility and paid way too much for it. I understand there was a scandal in the purchase of the land many years ago. Given the lack of business for the Center, the sports program seems sensible.
Yes, Hawaii taxpayers got ripped off by when State officials bought the land from Sukarman Sukampto at an overinflated price and with high construction costs of the convetion center including interest, Hawaii taxpayers are still trying to pay off the total cost of the covention center.
Waste of money. Hawaii already has many sports facilities .
Ign0rant post. Hawaii has many sports facilities with ONE OR FEW COURTS. Most facilities have only a single tournament-worthy court. These big tournaments need a plethora of courts at one location, which is currently possible only at the convention center. And being right in Waikiki is ideal for national/international tournaments, since most teams will be staying within walking distance or a 5-minute ride away. Prior to Waipio Soccer Complex, we had other soccer facilities. But we had none that could host a major tournament that required 10+ fields at one location. This is a great idea to use a pretty paltry outlay with the possibility of huge returns.
Finally!!! Hawaii has nothing like this. 28 Volleyball Courts in a single venue! We’ve been paying big bucks to take our kids to mainland tournaments held in mainland convention centers. Dallas, Reno, Minneapolis, Austin, etc. If they can make the courts available on a regular basis for clubs, they’ll bring in steady revenue (like the American Sports Center in Anaheim).
Hopefully the mainland clubs will agree to travel here for tournaments and endure the added expense. They’ll need to sell tons of shortbread cookies and lollipops.
Lol. Don’t forget standing by every street light with fishnets. At least sell brownies or something. It’s really hard to give money to people who have fishnets extended out. Yes we want to show our “Aloha Spirit” to the kids but at least offer something in return. Good luck to everyone on this venture!
They should tear the Convention Center down along with the broken train. Both are useless and built in the wrong places for political reasons. The Convention should have been built on part of Ala Wai Golf Course so ingress and egress would be better and parking would be available. The broken train was supposed to go from Kapolei to UH Manoa. I wish politicians would quit wasting taxpayer’s money and fix our infrastructure. No matter what the Mayor touts on roads, drawing bike lanes and patching holes with a shovel don’t count.
Yes, tear it down along with the Stanley, Aloha Stadium, HIC Arena, State Capitol, Waipio Soccer field, and all public H.S. sports arenas. What we need them for anyway?
I wish they would build massive bowling alley’s like the ones in Vegas! Nothing like chugging down pitchers of IPA’s and slugging black balls down oily wood lanes….!
Yes Viloria fought there bcause manoong Cayetano was gobernor then. Lose money on convention center and HTA, both started under uncle ben’s watch. Aye sus.
HTA is looking outside the box, and that’s always good. Very imaginative. However, biggestuhfan raises a good point: “Portable bleachers for spectators would be great too!” According to the writer, Consillio, “There is also an option to add elevated seating for spectators.” Without bleachers, we can pretty much take “spectators” out of the picture, and without spectators, the venue is severely limited. MCC, too, has a good point: “Ingress and egress…and parking” are issues at the current site. The big question is, can HTA push it past its current limits? Should we expand the current site or invest in a better CC?
There is only ONE way the convention cemter will,ever make money and that is to legalize gambling in Hawaii and allow only ONE casino in the State and that will be deep in the bowels of the convention center. from the outside everything looks the same but you have to go way inside and past overduty HPD who will handle overall security. Right next will,be a daycare center and dog sitting service so both locals and tourists can spend some time in he Hawaii casino. And don!t talk about gambling is bad as there are already hundreds of illegal gambling parlors in Hawaii and the culture of many Hwaiimresidnts is to take their whole family to Veags and the California hotel to gamble.. Also legalize one lottery game that picks a winning number every month. Keep the money that is going to be spemt outside of Hawaii anyway and it can be taxed which would be much mire acceptable than just raising vehicle, property or oher taxes which people have NO choice. I am not a casino gambler but would be willimg to spend $10-20 per monrh for lotter tickets. Also spread the lottery winning around and no real super multi million payout, rather something like a few one million dollar payouts,
88°
A good idea though expensive for club volleyball. Also, the ceilings can be somewhat low for volleyball.
Have you been inside there exhibition halls? The space is huge and the ceiling is higher than than the bottom of the scoreboard that hangs over the court at the Stan Sheriff Center. Very cool!
Oh boy, good luck. This idea seems very short sighted.
Yeah, at least they can use this space for all sorts of different stuff during times they are not being used. With the location and ability to deal with the traffic and parking, great to see another option for sporting events here.
I’ve never been in there, don’t know anything about the place. But from outside it looks really big. Maybe some international events would attract business.
Wow! I didn’t know Honolulu needed another sports venue.
Yeah, uh huh. But local sports clubs can’t use the facility, just like local couples looking to get married, or local enterprises looking to secure use. The convention center isn’t for local’s use. They have to agree to be bumped on a moment’s notice.
Critical reader, perhaps you should be more than a critical thinker. You’re wrong about locals being able to use the facility. In fact the bulk of the teams playing in the tournament this weekend are local. If you ever had a child or know of someone who has a child playing club volleyball, hen you would know how MASSIVE some of the tournaments are on the mainland. The top clubs head off to the Junior Olympics every year in cities like Detroit, Minneapolis, Dallas Anaheim and many many more. Were talking teams by the hundreds. Each team with a dozen or so players traveling with families. Adds up to a lot of people, thousands of hotel room nights, many millions of dollars spent here. The investment in these courts was little more than a million bucks. And the first two events on the books have already generated more than that in revenue for the state. And finally to your comment about being “bumped” in a moments notice. Really? Pretty much every event at the convention center is booked years in advance. Funny how the “critical” always moan and complain. How about recognizing there is a huge market out there that has yet to be tapped? Clearly Miss Orton has and the HTA funded the idea. Game on!
I think what he meant was, if Joe Aloha wanted to have his wedding reception there, he would risk getting bumped, as this convention center is not catering to the locals with smaller venues.
Yes, I’m guessing the CC doesn’t want to host a wedding for 150 people. But if Joe Aloha wanted to bring in a group of say 1000 people for a full scale event, with dinner and entertainment etc, he probably could. That’s what Sony does every year for it’s Sony Open Pro-Am gala. There’s also the wedding expo and STEM conference both catering only to “local” people. So I’m guessing the argument isn’t that the CC doesn’t cater to locals. It’s likely more that tit’s not cost effective for the center to host small events. And frankly it’s doesn’t look good. Like the state high school basketball tournament being played in front of 7000 empty seats at the Blaisdell.
Well said, KG. I didn’t realize how HUGE club volleyball was. These tournaments bring thousands of people (players, coaches, parents) to one place. I think this idea was a good example of “forward thinking”. Portable bleachers for spectators would be great too! And I’ve been to a lot of events at the convention center, don’t recall ever being “bumped”.
agree. It is clear that the Convention Center will not attract many serious conventions. We over built this facility and paid way too much for it. I understand there was a scandal in the purchase of the land many years ago. Given the lack of business for the Center, the sports program seems sensible.
Yes, Hawaii taxpayers got ripped off by when State officials bought the land from Sukarman Sukampto at an overinflated price and with high construction costs of the convetion center including interest, Hawaii taxpayers are still trying to pay off the total cost of the covention center.
Waste of money. Hawaii already has many sports facilities .
Ign0rant post. Hawaii has many sports facilities with ONE OR FEW COURTS. Most facilities have only a single tournament-worthy court. These big tournaments need a plethora of courts at one location, which is currently possible only at the convention center. And being right in Waikiki is ideal for national/international tournaments, since most teams will be staying within walking distance or a 5-minute ride away. Prior to Waipio Soccer Complex, we had other soccer facilities. But we had none that could host a major tournament that required 10+ fields at one location. This is a great idea to use a pretty paltry outlay with the possibility of huge returns.
Finally!!! Hawaii has nothing like this. 28 Volleyball Courts in a single venue! We’ve been paying big bucks to take our kids to mainland tournaments held in mainland convention centers. Dallas, Reno, Minneapolis, Austin, etc. If they can make the courts available on a regular basis for clubs, they’ll bring in steady revenue (like the American Sports Center in Anaheim).
Hopefully the mainland clubs will agree to travel here for tournaments and endure the added expense. They’ll need to sell tons of shortbread cookies and lollipops.
Lol. Don’t forget standing by every street light with fishnets. At least sell brownies or something. It’s really hard to give money to people who have fishnets extended out. Yes we want to show our “Aloha Spirit” to the kids but at least offer something in return. Good luck to everyone on this venture!
They should tear the Convention Center down along with the broken train. Both are useless and built in the wrong places for political reasons. The Convention should have been built on part of Ala Wai Golf Course so ingress and egress would be better and parking would be available. The broken train was supposed to go from Kapolei to UH Manoa. I wish politicians would quit wasting taxpayer’s money and fix our infrastructure. No matter what the Mayor touts on roads, drawing bike lanes and patching holes with a shovel don’t count.
Yes, tear it down along with the Stanley, Aloha Stadium, HIC Arena, State Capitol, Waipio Soccer field, and all public H.S. sports arenas. What we need them for anyway?
HIC arena?
HIC arena= Blaisdell Arena
Bdpapa, appreciate your satire.
Thanks kimo! mcc just got me on a roll!
Yup. The convention center is an enormous white elephant. Should have been been built on the zoo site. We still haven’t learned.
lets take down the already built center and start from scratch! maybe mcc should put your head back in the sand!
Lots of squeaks and echoes.
I wish they would build massive bowling alley’s like the ones in Vegas! Nothing like chugging down pitchers of IPA’s and slugging black balls down oily wood lanes….!
If I recall back in 2001, Hawaii’s Brian Viloria fought his professional boxing debut at the Hawaii Convention Center.
Yes Viloria fought there bcause manoong Cayetano was gobernor then. Lose money on convention center and HTA, both started under uncle ben’s watch. Aye sus.
Was wondering when they would do something like this. Maybe concerts as well if not already.
HTA is looking outside the box, and that’s always good. Very imaginative. However, biggestuhfan raises a good point: “Portable bleachers for spectators would be great too!” According to the writer, Consillio, “There is also an option to add elevated seating for spectators.” Without bleachers, we can pretty much take “spectators” out of the picture, and without spectators, the venue is severely limited. MCC, too, has a good point: “Ingress and egress…and parking” are issues at the current site. The big question is, can HTA push it past its current limits? Should we expand the current site or invest in a better CC?
There is only ONE way the convention cemter will,ever make money and that is to legalize gambling in Hawaii and allow only ONE casino in the State and that will be deep in the bowels of the convention center. from the outside everything looks the same but you have to go way inside and past overduty HPD who will handle overall security. Right next will,be a daycare center and dog sitting service so both locals and tourists can spend some time in he Hawaii casino. And don!t talk about gambling is bad as there are already hundreds of illegal gambling parlors in Hawaii and the culture of many Hwaiimresidnts is to take their whole family to Veags and the California hotel to gamble.. Also legalize one lottery game that picks a winning number every month. Keep the money that is going to be spemt outside of Hawaii anyway and it can be taxed which would be much mire acceptable than just raising vehicle, property or oher taxes which people have NO choice. I am not a casino gambler but would be willimg to spend $10-20 per monrh for lotter tickets. Also spread the lottery winning around and no real super multi million payout, rather something like a few one million dollar payouts,
Correction: Off duty HPD ….
Doing business in Hawaii? What is the cost to the taxpayer?