HĀLAWA — Aloha Stadium's northwest bowl was demolished on early Thursday afternoon, marking another significant step toward building a new stadium on the same grounds that's expected to be ready in time for the 2029 college football season.
Dozens of key local figures attended the demolition, all of whom wore neon safety vests as part of the required personal protective equipment. Some of the attendees were inside the old Aloha Stadium during its heyday, including former University of Hawai‘i football coach June Jones.
"I've been part of talking about it for 25 something years, and so to finally see something actually going on with it is a positive for the university, for sure," Jones told Aloha State Daily following Thursday's demolition.
When asked about his favorite games at the stadium, Jones lists Hawai‘i's 2003 win over Alabama and 2007 victory over Washington to preserve the team's perfect regular season as his most memorable.
Jones' former star quarterback, Timmy Chang, is currently the head coach of the Rainbow Warriors. Chang was also present at Thursday's demolition, along with a handful of UH assistant coaches.
"He's done a great job so far, and hopefully he can just keep continuing it," Jones said of Chang. "And I think he will. He's doing it. He's got good coaches around him, good people, and I think he's doing all the right things."
Aloha Hālawa District Partners, the developers of the future stadium, were able to check another box in its mission to build the new stadium. In the coming weeks, AHDP plans to demolish bowls in the mauka side of the stadium. AHDP managing member Stanford Carr previously mentioned to Aloha State Daily that the cast-in-place property structures in the north and south end zones will be preserved, saving $90 million in costs.
"It's great," Carr told ASD following Thursday's demolition. "I'm glad all these people came out to witness it. You know, reality sets in. This thing is coming down. There's no turning back. We'll continue to move ahead. We continue to refine the new stadium designs, and soon enough, we'll be rolling it out to the community so they can see what we're planning to build here. It's exciting."
The new Aloha Stadium, which will have at least 31,000 seats with room for as many as 41,000, will also be the new home of the Hawai‘i Sports Hall of Fame. The surrounding entertainment district will have a bevy of dining, shopping and entertainment options. The stadium's flagship tenant, the University of Hawai‘i football team, will play on a natural grass surface. Other sports such as soccer and rugby can also be played on the field.
Thursday's demolition was a time for attendees to reminisce about the old days. To those same people, the days of making new memories are in sight.
"It's a little bit of bittersweet, because I've sat in those stands," Aloha Stadium interim manager Michael Yadao said. "It's like seeing an old friend go away. On the flip side of that, it signals momentum and push towards remaining timelines. And we're going to be ready for that 2029 football season, because things like this happen today, right?
"I think that it shows the people of Hawai‘i, because there's this pessimism about construction, that it'll take 5 million years to build anything because of our isolated geography or whatever. And that's simply not true. In this case, we're going to meet timelines. We're going to build a new stadium. We're built to be able to work with our private sector development partner to do that. We want to show the people of Hawai‘i that this is real and that we don't have to accept that kind of dynamic that we can't build it and it'll take forever. But rather, we can be optimistic and we can believe in ourselves and our ability to perform. That means a lot to me."
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Christian Shimabuku can be reached at christian@alohastatedaily.com.
