Hawaii lawmakers and Gov. David Ige recently recommitted to replacing Aloha Stadium at its Halawa site, but voters electing the state’s next governor in November appear widely split over the bogged-down, roughly $400 million plan.
A new poll suggests that Hawaii voters are about equally divided on having a new stadium built at Halawa where other major development is planned or having University of Hawaii football games permanently continue on the UH Manoa campus where games have been played since 2021 after 47-year-old Aloha Stadium was largely condemned.
Of 800 registered voters statewide surveyed July 12-17 in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s Hawaii Poll, 42% preferred the Manoa option to 41% for the Halawa plan. Another 17% of respondents said either that they preferred neither option or were not sure.
The poll’s margin of error is no more than 3.5 percentage points, meaning the preference of voters is about the same as which team wins a coin flip on the 50-yard line at UH’s next football game.
Results of the survey suggest that public support for the state’s Aloha Stadium redevelopment plan may be slipping. A Hawaii Poll in January found that 46% of respondents favored a new stadium at Halawa, compared with 38% who said they favored “building a collegiate-level stadium at UH Manoa.”
Officials with the state Department of Accounting and General Services leading a two-part Aloha Stadium redevelopment plan said they aren’t surprised by the new poll results, and noted that the survey question doesn’t explain the broader objective to turn the Halawa site into a community with homes and businesses around a new stadium designed to host much more than UH football games.
“It’s a little bit apples and oranges, so I’m not surprised that the vote was split,” said Chris Kinimaka, public works administrator at DAGS.
Curt Otaguro, head of the department, added, “We’re not just replacing a football stadium with a football stadium.”
A new stadium at Halawa is envisioned to host sporting events of all kinds along with other productions, including major concerts and the long-running swap meet.
Top candidates for governor have expressed mixed views on the stadium redevelopment plan, which has been in the works for close to a decade and involves the state contributing $350 million in taxpayer funds under a partnership where private developers would replace the rusted 50,000-seat stadium with a roughly 30,000-seat facility and add retail stores, restaurants, a hotel, housing and other things on the state’s 98-acre stadium site, which features a city rail station.
U.S. Rep. Kai Kahele has expressed the most ardent opposition to the state’s plan, and favors building 10,000 homes on the Halawa site to help address affordable-housing needs while building a new stadium in West Oahu.
Lt. Gov. Josh Green, who is also running on the Democratic side of the primary election for governor, has said it makes sense to follow through with the state’s plan and that both a new stadium and affordable housing should be built in Halawa.
Business owner Vicky Cayetano, another Democratic candidate for governor, said her preference is to pursue a suitable football facility in Manoa and use the Halawa site and funding for affordable housing, which she views as a bigger state need than a new stadium.
Cayetano’s husband, former Gov. Ben Cayetano, co-authored a written public plea with former Hawaii Govs. Neil Abercrombie and John Waihee in October calling for construction of a collegiate-level stadium at the Ching Athletic Complex at UH Manoa for less than $350 million and using the Halawa site mainly for affordable housing.
Among poll respondents who are Democrats, 44% favor building a new stadium at Halawa to 41% favoring permanent use of the Ching complex at Manoa, where UH expanded the seating capacity to 9,000 ahead of indefinite plans for further expansion.
More independent voters preferred the Manoa concept — 43% to 37% for the Halawa plan.
Republican voters who responded to the poll were evenly split at 42% for each position.
Honolulu Council member Heidi Tsuneyoshi, who is running for governor as a Republican, said she supports building a new stadium at Halawa but without the other envisioned components, as a way to keep taxpayer costs down.
Former Lt. Gov. James “Duke” Aiona, another Republican candidate, said he has long preferred a stadium at UH Manoa that can be built for less than a new stadium at Halawa. Aiona said the Halawa site should be used for some kind of highest and best use that could be housing but definitely not a stadium.
A third leading Republican candidate for governor, retired mixed martial arts fighting champion BJ Penn, did not respond to a request for comment on the issue.
This is not the first time that gubernatorial candidates have disagreed with the state’s Aloha Stadium redevelopment plan in the run-up to a primary election.
In 2018 when Ige was nearing the end of his first term as governor, he and Democratic contender U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa expressed desires to see a new stadium at UH Manoa or UH West Oahu.
At the time, state planners and private consultants were advancing a plan to build a new stadium after concluding that maintaining the existing one, which was home to UH football since it opened, would cost more in the long run, though no competing site study had been done.
A site study was produced in 2019, and looked at 18 potential locations that included Aala Park, Sand Island, Koko Head crater and Waipio Peninsula.
Out of six sites that scored the best on factors that included cost, infrastructure, economic benefit, environmental impact, community acceptance and political viability, UH Manoa ranked fifth with a score of 55 out of 100.
Halawa was first with a score of 87, followed by UH West Oahu at 69 and the Ala Wai Golf Course at 63. Kapiolani Park scored 56, just above UH Manoa, and Kalaeloa scored 49.
DAGS has spent about $20 million on the project to date, which includes conceptual planning, land use approvals, an environmental impact statement, community meetings and other work.
The agency previously expected to issue a request for proposals to developers in time to have a new stadium open in 2023. But that timetable was set back by challenges at the Legislature in recent years and COVID-19. Another expectation to issue the RFP for the stadium earlier this year also was dashed.
In May, lawmakers passed a bill to change the administrative attachment of the Stadium Authority, which would operate a new stadium, from DAGS to the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. So now DAGS plans to bring DBEDT up to speed on the project before issuing the stadium RFP. A separate RFP is planned for surrounding development.
On July 7 the governor signed a state budget bill that includes $350 million for the Halawa project.
Otaguro anticipates that a request for proposals to replace Aloha Stadium will be issued after the Aug. 13 primary election and hopefully before the Nov. 8 general election.
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