Since Aloha Stadium welcomed the first fans through its turnstiles on Sept. 13, 1975, the facility has been inextricably linked with the University of Hawaii football program.
So when the Stadium Authority announced plans Thursday to “place a moratorium on new events” at the 45-year-old stadium, the impact of the statement reverberated from Halawa to Manoa.
The Rainbow Warriors have called Aloha Stadium home since that 1975 meeting with Texas A&I — a 43-9 loss before a crowd of 32,247 in the facility’s official debut. Less than a week after UH’s win over UNLV on Saturday, the program’s future in the stadium became clouded.
>> PHOTOS: Aloha Stadium over the years
“We are beyond disappointed of the news at today’s announcement from the Aloha Stadium Authority that there will be no further events in the current stadium with fans,” UH athletic director David Matlin said in a statement issued Thursday by the university.
“Aloha Stadium has such a storied history and carries so many memories for our football program and generations of Hawaii families. We must now take responsibility ourselves to find a suitable venue for our Rainbow Warriors, Hawaii’s football team, to play in front of our loyal fans beginning in 2021.”
The Warriors played five games at Aloha Stadium this season without fans due to COVID-19 restrictions, closing the regular season with a 38-21 win over UNLV. UH will close the campaign against Houston in the New Mexico Bowl on Thursday in Frisco, Texas.
UH is scheduled to open the 2021 season on the road against UCLA on Aug. 28. The Warriors’ home debut is set for Sept. 4 against Portland State, and they have a home game with New Mexico State scheduled for Oct. 23. The nonconference schedule also includes road games at Oregon State on Sept. 11 and at New Mexico State on Sept. 25. The Mountain West Conference schedule has yet to be announced.
State Sen. Glenn Wakai, whose district includes the Pearl Harbor area where the stadium is located, said Thursday’s announcement “only reinforces what I’ve been on for the past 10 years of building a new stadium.”
“I wish I had gotten it through two years sooner; then we wouldn’t be facing these unfortunate decisions,” Wakai said. “But it only puts more pressure on us to get the new stadium done faster than ever.”
A new playing facility, part of the New Aloha Stadium Entertainment District, was initially scheduled to be ready for UH’s 2023 season opener. But an inability to pass a bill through the Legislature over the summer pushed the target date to late 2023 or early 2024.
“I just feel especially for the University of Hawaii,” Wakai said. “Where in the world are they going to be playing their football games for the next three seasons until we complete the new stadium?”
If Aloha Stadium is not available for UH football, Wakai raised the notion of taking the games to the neighbor islands. UH opened the 2001 season with a 30-12 win over Montana at Maui’s War Memorial Stadium in the program’s first game played off Oahu. Attendance for the game was listed at 12,863.
UH has also held spring scrimmages on Maui and Kauai in past years. War Memorial Stadium, which lists a capacity of 20,000, hosted the Hula Bowl for eight years starting in 1998.
“It’s a unique opportunity to cultivate a fan base on the neighbor islands, and you can turn something really unfortunate and ugly into something that has some redeeming qualities,” Wakai said. “This is the University of Hawaii; it’s not the University of Oahu. We should be cultivating a fan base on Maui, Kauai and the Big Island. … It’s kind of a neat opportunity, and I would hate to see UH play all road games. That would be an even more devastating disaster for athletics here in Hawaii.”
Maui Mayor Mike Victorino issued a statement Thursday stating that he is “open to entertaining the notion of War Memorial Stadium hosting UH football games.”
“It would be a great opportunity for our local college football fans to cheer the Rainbow Warrior football team here at home on Maui,” Victorino said in the release. “War Memorial hosted a UH football game in 2001 and Hula Bowl games from 1998 to 2005. So, we know games of this caliber have been played here — with national TV coverage. I am willing to expedite stadium improvements to accommodate better seating, lighting or expanded concession areas, in order to host UH games here.”
The Clarence T.C. Ching Complex on the UH-Manoa campus has an approximate seating capacity of 2,500 with a grandstand on the mauka side of the field. A set of bleachers is on the opposite side.
Membership in the NCAA’s Football Bowl Subdivision requires an average of at least 15,000 in attendance over a rolling two-year period — although with many schools not allowing spectators during the pandemic, it’s conceivable that stipulation figures to be relaxed.
