Editorial: Find alternatives to Aloha Stadium

By this time next year, if the current timeline for redevelopment of a 98-acre Halawa site holds, a developer will be selected and pushing plans forward. The target date for completion of the New Aloha Stadium Entertainment District’s centerpiece — a stadium with a field for University of Hawaii home football games — is set for late 2023 or early 2024.

But in the meantime, due to the Stadium Authority’s move last week to indefinitely suspend booking new events inside Hawaii’s aging Rust Palace, it appears the Rainbow Warriors are out in the cold, scrambling to play their seasons on other fields. This shuttering is a heartbreaker for the UH team and their fans, even if the decision makes financial sense amid pandemic-related economic struggles.

Due to COVID-19 concerns, the stadium has been unable to host major athletic and other events for the past nine months, resulting in a major cash-flow shortfall. What’s more, as the 45-year-old facility has long struggled to keep up with repairs and upgrades needed to comply with public health and safety standards, it’s facing a sizable projected deficit for the fiscal year, according to a budget report.

The Stadium Authority — a nine-member panel appointed by the governor with the consent of the state Senate — cannot expect stopgap funding from the Legislature in 2021. Not with state coffers essentially drained, plans for worker furloughs underway and Gov. David Ige projecting a revenue shortfall of $1.4 billion annually for each of four years.

Without resources in place to ensure safe operations, the money-pit stadium is being closed. That means UH football will need to dig deep to realize other viable venue options. Among them is Maui’s War Memorial Stadium, which has the second-largest football seating capacity in the state — about 20,000 seats, behind 50,000-seat Aloha Stadium.

The stadium in Wailuku could be clutch in helping the UH comply with an NCAA requirement for university programs to maintain an average fan attendance of 15,000 once every two years to keep their Division I status.

It’s encouraging that Maui Mayor Mike Victorino was quick to express interest. Pointing out that the War Memorial hosted a UH game in 2001, Hula Bowl games from 1998 to 2005, and has accommodated national TV coverage, he said in a written statement: “I am willing to expedite stadium improvements to accommodate better seating, lighting or expanded concession areas” to host UH games.

On Oahu, the university will need to size up its own facilities as well as playing fields at public and private high schools as possible venues. While the sensible pick is not yet clear, it’s apparent that each of these options will saddle UH with more costs — arriving as the 10-campus system attempts to muddle through shaky financial years due to the impacts of the coronavirus.

A forging of community partnerships, through which Hawaii businesses and various groups help defray costs tied to transporting the team and their gear, could serve as means to lighten the university’s burden while it awaits kickoff at the new Aloha Stadium, which is expected to be right-sized to about 35,000 seats.

The state already has committed up to $350 million for its share of a public-private partnership to build the venue into a planned entertainment-anchored district. Slated for adjacent construction on previously underutilized acreage are commercial and residential features, as well as a rail transit station.

Long-term, the future looks bright for Aloha Stadium’s transformation and the site’s mixed-use makeover: It’s near a planned rail station, which holds potential to spur additional neighborhood investment while easing commuter travel.

Short-term, though, is where the hurt lies, as the UH, other schools and organizations must prepare to make do without the longtime go-to venue.