(02-25-2022 12:13 PM)HawaiiMongoose Wrote:  SDSU is showing how to get it done. Good for them. Meanwhile in Honolulu, the old Aloha Stadium is still rusting away and the Hawaii governor and legislature can’t get on the same page with respect to financing and building a replacement. There’s the appearance of a game plan to move ahead with the project (including some very pretty renderings posted earlier in this thread), but final issuance of an RFP to stadium developers is currently on hold because there’s disagreement behind the scenes over whether and how much money should come from the private sector.

It’s ridiculous because Aloha Stadium has always been a publicly-financed multi-use state-controlled facility and before the Covid crisis there was agreement that the full $350 million replacement cost would be taxpayer-funded. Then during the pandemic the governor and legislature panicked and cut public funding to $170 million with no plan for making up the difference other than vague references to a “public-private partnership.” Now the Hawaii economy has recovered and the state has a billion dollar budget surplus, but the governor refuses to issue the RFP until the legislature restores the full $350 million funding while the legislature can’t reach a consensus to do so because too many members have other pet priorities they want to spend the surplus money on.

They’ll figure it out eventually but in the meantime UH is left playing in a makeshift on-campus stadium and begging for someone to give them a definitive timeline for when they’ll have access to a new Aloha Stadium. Right now the best case is that the politicians will settle the financing issue in the next few months and construction will begin in 2023 and be done in 2025.