Aloha Stadium fans invited to final public event

Bruno Mars or the University of Hawaii football team won’t be playing, but one final event at Aloha Stadium is planned for the public later this month.

The Stadium Authority, a state agency trying to redevelop the 47-year-old facility in Halawa, which was condemned for spectator events in late 2020, has organized a closing ceremony event for 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Feb. 25, a Saturday, featuring field-goal kicking and other football practice activities on the field, food trucks and unguided tours of internal parts of the stadium not typically open to the public, including a Hawaii Sports Hall of Fame display, locker rooms and prized UH sports memorabilia.

There also will be entertainment, a beer concession, the regular swap meet with around 400 vendors, a keiki play zone and some “game day experience” elements including opportunities to meet well-known sportscasters and UH athletes.

Stadium Authority officials expect to have the 50,000-seat Rust Palace demolished in 2024 and replaced by a new, roughly 35,000-seat facility projected to open in 2027 if drawn-out difficulties executing a redevelopment plan are overcome without more setbacks.

“As we approach the time to say goodbye to this historic venue and make way for a new facility, the Stadium Authority will be providing fans with one last opportunity to preserve their memories,” the agency said in an announcement.

Samantha Spain, the stadium’s marketing specialist, said around 5,000 people or more should be able to attend and that the event will represent the last time the public will be able to visit the stadium.

“We want them to leave with chicken skin taking their photo on the 50-yard line knowing that it won’t be here next year,” she said.

Admission prices range from free to $24 including fees, depending on visit time slots. Free tickets can be obtained for visiting from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Prices for longer afternoon and evening time slots are about $10 and $13, respectively. The $24 ticket allows access from noon to 9 p.m. and includes some VIP extras.

Children age 12 and under accompanied by an adult get in free with a ticket.

Tickets are required and are available at aloha-­stadium.eventbrite.com. A limited number of same-day ticket purchases at the stadium also will be available.

The event, dubbed “Aloha From Aloha Stadium,” follows the Stadium Authority auctioning parts of the stadium including seat backs, signs, remnant turf and equipment in a series of sales that began in October.

State officials, including Hawaii lawmakers, Stadium Authority members and the Department of Accounting and General Services, aided by a team of private-industry consultants, have been working for more than a decade on plans to redevelop the stadium’s 98-acre site into a New Aloha Stadium Entertainment District with a new stadium surrounded by retail, restaurants, homes and a hotel produced by a private developer or developers and financed by a mix of private capital and $350 million in Hawaii taxpayer funding.

Much work including market studies, conceptual planning, environmental reviews, land-use approvals and request-for-proposal drafts has been done. Yet multiple changes ordered by the Legislature over several years and reassessments or attempted changes by recently elected Gov. Josh Green and his predecessor, David Ige, have set back the project where a new stadium was once projected to open this year.

The coronavirus pandemic also contributed to delays and led the Stadium Authority, which operates the stadium, to close the stands in December 2020 because of high maintenance expenses and dried-up revenue amid COVID-19 restrictions. That move forced UH to retrofit its Clarence T.C. Ching practice field in Manoa for games in 2022 and for an uncertain number of years ahead.