A “repeatedly stymied state plan” to redevelop Aloha Stadium is once again in danger of upheaval after the Hawaii House of Representatives passed a bill Tuesday to “scuttle the redevelopment project in favor of building a less costly stadium” on the Univ. of Hawaii at Manoa campus, according to Andrew Gomes of the HONOLULU STAR-ADVERTISER. Under the new bill, the previously approved $400M in taxpayer funding to redevelop Aloha Stadium in Halawa through a public-private partnership under a pending solicitation for competitive bids would be canceled, and $211M would instead be appropriated for UH to build a new stadium on its flagship campus. If the bill becomes law, it would “upend an effort that has been in the works for close to a decade" known as the New Aloha Stadium Entertainment District. Critics of the latest proposal said that enacting the bill would “waste years of work” and about $25M already spent on the redevelopment plan, while “impairing envisioned development of a new community” on the 98-acre Halawa site. Questions also have been raised over whether UH Manoa, which converted a practice field on campus into a temporary game venue with seating for 15,000 fans, “can accommodate a bigger and better stadium for its own use and perhaps other uses.” UH CFO Kalbert Young said that the school “prefers the plan to build a new stadium in Halawa that is supposed to be ready in 2028 for uses that include UH football” (HONOLULU STAR-ADVERTISER, 3/6).
