Please stop.
No, not about plans to build a replacement for Aloha Stadium. That needs to continue.
But lawmakers need to stop telling us when the replacement will be ready for use.
It was in December 2020 when officials declared Aloha Stadium would no longer be able to serve as host to spectator-attended events. There was talk of a replacement being completed for the 2023 football season. And then 2024, and then 2026, and then — cross their hearts and hope to spit — 2027. Now they’re hinting at 2028.
That’s eight years from the self-condemnation. World War II lasted six years. The Golden Gate Bridge was constructed in 41⁄3 years; the Empire State Building in 410 days. That’s all eight seasons of the “Andy Griffith Show.” That’s four Olympics. In the eight years through 2022, Apple came out with nine versions of the iPhone.
An afternoon radio host called the delay negligent in comparison to other cities that have cleared greater hurdles to build stadiums quickly, efficiently and aesthetically. The money is there, the space is there. The bulldozer and hard hats are not. For a stadium that has not held a football game since the 2021 Hula Bowl, the goal line keeps moving.
It’s like “The Office” episode in which the Michael Scott character promised a third-grade class he would pay for the students’ college tuition when they completed high school. Ten years later, Scott’s Tots learn that Scott does not have the means to fulfill the promise. That’s the problem with the Halawa project. Intentions are good, but the execution? Not so much.
And we get it. It’s difficult to dismantle a stadium made of rusting steel. I don’t know how to dismantle a stadium. Do you? Or you? There are supposed to be experts who implode vacant buildings for a living. But Aloha Stadium is a wide-spreading Erector Set. If it’s not done correctly, there could be shrapnel firing into the Auto Zone parking lot. And carving the stadium appears to be as time-consuming as the file-in-a-cake plot for a prisoner.
Leaving the demolition and removal to a future tenant would be ideal. Except the new stadium is supposed to be built on the same spot as the old one. If I’m paving your driveway, I think I should be able to park my car there every now and then.
There is no urgency for the non-stadium projects on the site. We all want affordable housing, but does it have to be right next to a stadium? Thousands of fans of football and concerts want a new stadium. We haven’t heard of a wait list for a room at a Halawa hotel. The clock is ticking to build a new stadium, especially for the University of Hawaii football program. Conference realignment will impact UH. Every Mountain West football program that does not have an 808 area code has made improvements to its facilities. The NCAA is proposing to play games in its expanded playoffs on or near Christmas, a coveted TV spot used for the Hawaii Bowl.
If it is too difficult to raze the stadium and replace it with a stadium-centered entertainment and housing complex, why not consider fixing Aloha Stadium?
Insurance companies declare a damaged car as being “totaled” if the repair cost exceeds the value of the vehicle. It would be costly to replace Aloha Stadium’s plumbing and repair the corroding stands and walkways. But with time and inflation as obstacles to a replacement, it might be more practical to redirect the money for a new facility to fixing the old one. After all, the field is in good shape and the scoreboard does not appear to be hitched to a U-Haul anytime soon. New pipes and lots of Bondo would go a long way while we wait for the next promise.
