Ferd Lewis: University of Hawaii’s newest plan not a good look for program

Imagine University of Hawaii football coach Todd Graham showing a blue chip prospect from his former high school, Allen (Texas) High, around the Rainbow Warriors’ new home field at the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex.

“This is where you’ll play at least the next three years,” Graham could say, grandly waving his hand at the augmented on-campus facility.

“But, uh, Coach, even my high school games are played at a place (18,000-seat Eagle Stadium) that is bigger and a lot better than this,” the recruit might reply.

Welcome to what could soon become the Rainbow Warriors’ curious new world if they follow through on plans announced on Monday to take their football and go back home to campus.

If this latest escalation in UH’s apparent fit of pique with the Aloha Stadium Authority is posturing for the Legislature, which opens Jan. 20, then it smacks of petulance and is fraught with obstacles and, perhaps, unintended consequences.

The kind that should quickly prompt UH, the Stadium Authority and the State’s Department of Accounting and General Services to huddle and find a workable solution.

UH, which is projecting a nearly $9 million athletic department budget deficit for the current fiscal year, said it is “working with the UH-Manoa Office of Project Delivery to design plans that would increase the seating capacity; replace the existing turf, install a new scoreboard and speaker system; upgrade the press box; and other amenities needed to host Division I college football games.”

This is the same track and field complex that was to have debuted in 2013 for $10 million but came in nearly $14 million in 2014.

In the Ching complex, which currently lists bench seating of 2,500, you have a facility wedged in amongst the Duke Kahanamoku Aquatic Complex, Murakami Stadium, a road, a sand volleyball pit and the athletic department buildings with very little room for build-out, no protection from the elements, few restrooms and plenty of infrastructure challenges.

You have to wonder if fellow Mountain West Conference members, much less, Vanderbilt (2022), Stanford (2023) or Oregon (2024), will be thrilled about playing there, should it come to that.

Would the Mountain West’s TV partners, CBS and Fox, be able or even want to telecast from there?

Then there is the question of whether the neighbors might have an objection to additional traffic and noise that six to eight games a year would bring. Dylan Armstrong, who chairs the Manoa Neighborhood Board, said he hadn’t been advised of UH’s plans but said generally, “One of the biggest concerns about any development or new activities in the neighborhood tends to be noise and traffic congestion.”

State Comptroller Curt Otaguro, a corporate sponsor of UH athletics in previous positions in private business, is a man of reason, but maybe not infinite patience. “We’re still open to collaborative dialogue and we hope UH is, as well,” Otaguro said Monday. “However, if they decide that the on-campus route is in their best interest, then we wish them well and we’ll make future decisions about Aloha Stadium, accordingly.”

And, that’s the potential problem. Because even before the state was staring at a projected $1.8 billion budget deficit brought on by the impact of COVID-19, critics had loudly bemoaned the allotment of $350 million for a new stadium in which UH was going to play just six to eight games a season.

If UH chooses to play on campus, then expect a growing outcry to put some or all of that moolah to the multitude of other, more pressing uses.

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