Aloha Stadium is a stadium located in ʻAiea, Hawaiʻi. Currently Aloha Stadium is home to the University of Hawaiʻi Warriors football team (Western Athletic Conference, NCAA Division I FBS). It has also been home to the National Football League's Pro Bowl since 1980 and the NCAA's Hula Bowl from 1975 to 1997 and again in 2006. It also hosts numerous high school football games during the season, and serves as a venue for large concerts and events. A swap meet in the stadium's parking lot every weekend draws large crowds. Aloha Stadium once served as home field for the AAA Hawaiʻi Islanders of the Pacific Coast League from 1975 to 1987 before the team moved to Colorado Springs.

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History

Located west of downtown Honolulu and two miles north of Honolulu International Airport, Aloha Stadium was built in 1975 at a cost of $37 million. It was intended as a replacement for the aging Honolulu Stadium on King Street, demolished in 1976.

The first sporting event ever held at Aloha Stadium was a football game played between the University of Hawaii and Texas A&M on September 13, 1975. The attendance was 32,247. ^[1]

Aloha Stadium could be reconfigured into various configurations for different sport venues and other purposes, and was the first stadium in the United States with this capability. Four movable sections, each 3.5 million pounds and with a capacity of 7,000, could move using air cushions into a diamond configuration for baseball (also used for soccer), an oval for football, or a triangle for concerts. However, in January 2007, the stadium was permanently locked into its football configuration, citing cost and maintenance issues. ^[2]

There have been numerous discussions with State of Hawaiʻi lawmakers who are concerned with the physical condition of the stadium. There are several issues regarding rusting of the facility, several hundred seats that need to be replaced, and restroom facilities that need to be expanded to accommodate more patrons.

In early 2007, the state legislature proposed to spend $300 million to build a new facility as opposed to spending approximately $216 million to extend the life of Aloha Stadium for another 20-30 years. The new stadium would also be used to lure a potential Super Bowl to Hawaiʻi in the near future, possibly for 2016. ^{[3] [4]}

One council member has said that if immediate repairs are not made within the next seven years, then the stadium will probably have to be demolished due to safety concerns. In May 2007, the state alloted $12.4 million to be used towards removing corrosion and rust from the structure. ^[5]

Expansion and Improvements

In 2003, the stadium surface was changed from AstroTurf (which had been in place since the stadium opened) to FieldTurf.

2008, the state of Hawaii approved the bill of $185 million to refurbish the aging Aloha Stadium . The Aloha Stadium Authority plans to add more luxury suites, replacing all seats, rusting treatments, parking lots, more restrooms, pedestrian bridge supports, enclosed lounge, and more. There is also a proposal that would close the 4 opening corners of the stadium to add more seats.

Gallery

Events

In 1997, a three-game regular season series between Major League Baseball's St. Louis Cardinals and San Diego Padres was held at the stadium. ^[6] The series was played in with a doubleheader on April 19 and a nationally broadcast (ESPN) game on April 20. In 1975, the Padres had played an exhibition series against the Seibu Lions of Japan's Pacific League.

Aloha Stadium has also been used for large-scale concerts, including The Police in their final US concert on their Synchronicity Tour in 1984, Michael Jackson's HIStory World Tour in 1997, The Rolling Stones on their Bridges to Babylon Tour in 1998, Celine Dion on her Let's Talk About Love Tour in 1999, and the final shows of Mariah Carey's Butterfly World Tour in 1998, , the final stops on U2's Vertigo Tour in 2006 and Janet Jackson's All for You Tour in 2002, which was broadcast on HBO as well as her 1999 Velvet Rope World Tour which broke stadium attendance records.

Aloha Stadium hosted the inaugural Pan-Pacific Championship (February 20-23, 2008), a knockout soccer tournament, involving four teams from Japan's J-League, North America's Major League Soccer (MLS) and Australia/New Zealand's A-League. ^[7]

References

1. Aloha Stadium Swap Meet "About Us" page, alohastadiumswapmeet.net
2. Aloha Stadium losing baseball configuration
3. Super Dreams: Bringing the 50th Super Bowl to the 50th state would be costly
4. Breakdown of cities vying for 2012 Super Bowl
5. Stadium rust to get $12.4M treatment
6. Padres, Cardinals to play in Hawaii
7. 2008 Pan-Pacific Championship: Make it more inclusive