As SAT takers have learned, there are two time-tested strategies.
1. Go with your first answer. Second-guessing wastes time and leads to further indecision. For instance, if your first instinct is to run when a snarling tiger nears, why ponder other options?
2. And when in doubt about an SAT question, take a guess. The SAT does not deduct points for wrong answers.
It is a strategy welcomed at the craps table, when the stickperson finally tells wishy-washy gamblers: “No more bets.”
And it is applicable when well-intended lawmakers propose that maybe it would be a better option to build a new football stadium on the University of Hawaii campus instead of constructing a replacement for Aloha Stadium on the Halawa property.
Of course, it makes sense to build an on-campus stadium on the UH football team’s campus. In the Mountain West, of which UH currently is a football-only member, all 12 football teams play their games at on-campus stadiums or venues within 5 miles of their schools.
When Aloha Stadium was self-condemned for spectator-attended events in December 2020, UH was forced to retrofit the on-campus Ching Complex into a venue for home games. The move allowed UH to keep revenue from parking and concessions — money they did not receive as Aloha Stadium’s primary tenant for more than four decades. Aloha Stadium also billed the Rainbow Warriors for game-managements expenses, such as staffing, security and utilities. Now the Warriors provide their own.
The thing is, serious discussions and proposals on a new stadium should have been done, oh, say, in the previous four years. There was plenty of time to lobby for why renovating or replacing the Ching Complex, which is an inadequate long-term solution, would be better than building a new Halawa stadium as the center of an affordable housing and entertainment district.
But that debate period has passed, and the state and developers are a few items away from mutually agreeing to break ground in Halawa. Great shots — and ideas — do not matter after the buzzer has sounded.
In these times, it is the correct choice to go forth with the Halawa project, just as it is key for all state-subsidized projects to focus on the “now” rather than the “later.”
When the drive from downtown to Oahu’s West side stretched to more than an hour, it was evident an additional means of mass transportation was needed. Did it have to be Skyline with its ukubillion price tag and short route? Probably not. But once a decision was made, at the least, it set a start date for construction. Further debates inevitably would have resulted in higher construction costs and delays.
Similarly, if there were a shift to move the next stadium from Halawa to Manoa, it would take environmental and infrastructure studies, community hearings, additional parking, and many, many more meetings. When Cooke Field was transformed into the Ching Complex, there were numerous delays — hint: It rains every day in Manoa — that swelled the initial projection of $10 million to a final cost of $16 million.
With everything in motion and the funding in place, the first and final answer should be: Build the stadium in Halawa.