The forgettable musical group Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks once asked this unforgettable question: “How can I miss you when you won’t go away?”

And that’s Aloha Stadium, which self-condemned in December 2020, then allowed the Hula Bowl to be played a month later, and then 25 months later threw a farewell party for itself. But can it really be over when there is a swap meet every week, the utilities still work and the payroll continues to roll?

It’s like two friends saying goodbye after a dinner, hugging it out and then … walking in the same direction.

Oh, there are grand plans for somebody — anybody? — to raze the stadium, build a new one and use the property’s vacant area to build housing, a hotel or an entertainment center. Of course, the vacant area is not really vacant; it’s currently used for parking, which there never was enough of.

And if the housing situation is such a concern, there is a football team in Manoa that has been homeless the past three years. The Ching Complex on the Manoa campus is more of a temporary shelter than a home.

And where are they going to get workers to build this thing? Hawaii’s worker shortage is apparent to anyone waiting 45 minutes to be seated at a restaurant.

But while we wait, here are four things that can be done with the Halawa property in the interim:

1. A few years ago, the student section was packed and then it was not. What happened was officials disbanded the pre-game, parking-lot gatherings where young people did what their parents did when they were young. And then special-duty workers told older postgame tailgaters to “move along.” Tailgating is fun, ‘opu-filling, and unifying. The game is a bonus. Even though there is no game being played, how about opening the parking lot for tailgating? At, say, $10 a car, people can eat, drink and talk story.

2. In the mid-1990s, plans were in the works to stage a street-course race in the Aloha Stadium parking lot. More than a dozen drivers signed up. The Shelby Can-Am cars were displayed during a promotional news conference. For whatever reason — funding? speed bumps? — the race did not materialize. But with Hawaii Raceway Park long shuttered, it’s time to bring back legal street racing. Aloha Stadium’s parking lot is as good a place as any, well, except on swap meet days.

3. This summer, for real, the giant video scoreboard will relocate to the Ching Complex. (Tip: Take Nimitz, the scoreboard won’t fit under the Gulick Street overpass.) One of the suggestions when retrofitting Ching two years ago was to have movie nights. It’s a good idea that can be implemented now at Aloha Stadium. With the stands closed, movie-goers can bring folding chairs or picnic blankets. And it does not have to be just movies. Officials could show full videos of past UH football games.

4. In journalism, recruiting and matchmaking, there is a tactic known as “stimulating the action.” Sometime a person needs a nudge, sometimes a shove, to act.

Take all the people in charge of the new stadium project and give them offices in Aloha Stadium.

“Mmmm, have a glass of water from those pipes.”

“Out of curiosity, keeping up with your tetanus shots?”

After several weeks in the rustic — and rusty — facility, planners might be stimulated to get the project moving.