While progress toward the new Aloha Stadium continues ahead of its 2029 target, the current University of Hawai‘i football team is set to play its home games at the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex on the UH-Mānoa campus through 2028.
Though upperclassmen on the team may not get the opportunity to play in the new stadium as Rainbow Warriors, current freshmen on the team who stay through their senior seasons will be rewarded as the first crop to take the field in Hālawa.
Starting this summer, Aloha Stadium Executive Director Michael Yadao says UH coaches are welcome to show the stadium in its current form to recruits the school is courting.
"Our offer to the UH team, and we mean it, is as they're recruiting players, and if they want to see how the demo is progressing, or if they want to see the plans for the future build up, we want to be a part of that process," Yadao told Aloha State Daily. "We want them to be able to say to the high school senior, 'Hey, if you stick with UH you're playing at TC Ching, but you could potentially be in the inaugural season of the stadium in front of your friends and family, and playing for the University of Hawai‘i' and what that could mean."
The Rainbow Warriors have played on campus at the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex since 2021, a process that began with the old Aloha Stadium being deemed unsafe to hold crowds of any capacity during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Memories of the first era of Aloha Stadium, from its 1975 opening, remain prominent at various levels of football across the state. Multiple members of the current Hawai‘i coaching staff were former UH players themselves, including head coach Timmy Chang and associate head coach Chris Brown.
"Timmy Chang stayed in Hawai‘i, Chris Brown stayed in Hawai‘i. They both coulda had opportunities elsewhere," Yadao said. "We want to use the stadium to be a draw for UH players to stay, hopefully."
Chang and Brown were both present in person at a live demolition of Aloha Stadium's northwest bowl on April 23. Attendees that observed from the stadium's parking lot in Hālawa were required to wear personal protective equipment, including safety vests. Yadao says that will also be the case during tours of the stadium while it is under construction.
"Chris would call, or Timmy would call and say, 'Hey, Mike, can we?' We haven't done it yet, but we're open to it and and they know that, and we want to," Yadao said. "I would be like, 'Bring them down, tell me when,' and we'll show them what's happened. I'd call (stadium developer) Stanford (Carr) and we'd go up to the site and show them, or I'd bring them here and show them the schematics or the boardroom, and we do our best to help Chris and Timmy keep good talent here."
Yadao and Brown in particular go back a long way. The two became friends as classmates at Damien Memorial School, graduating in 1998. Both went on to attend UH-Mānoa.
"What kind of encapsulates who Chris is, I would see him in a weight room or on a football field, and he is a big, scary, intimidating guy. He was always carved out of granite, you know? But the second a kid or a woman would walk by, he's a gentleman, he tones it down," Yadao said. "Chris has always been a good human being."
Although active demolition is underway, the master development agreement (MDA) between the New Aloha Stadium Entertainment District (NASED) and the stadium's developer, Aloha Hālawa District Partners (AHDP), continues to be negotiated.
The new Aloha Stadium, slated to open in time for the 2029 college football season, will have a seating capacity of 31,000 with room for expansion in addition to a natural grass playing surface. The first game on UH's 2029 schedule is an Aug. 25 contest against Arizona.
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Christian Shimabuku can be reached at christian@alohastatedaily.com.
