Aloha Stadium is a stadium located in Halawa, Hawaii, a western suburb of Honolulu (though with a Honolulu address). It is the largest stadium in the state of Hawaii. Aloha Stadium is home to the University of Hawai?i Rainbow Warriors football team (Mountain West Conference, NCAA Division I FBS). It hosts the NCAA's Hawai'i Bowl. It was home to the National Football League's Pro Bowl from 1980 through 2016 (except in 2010 and 2015) and to the NCAA's Hula Bowl from 1975 to 1997 and again from 2006 to 2008. 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 Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday draws large crowds. Aloha Stadium once served as home field for the AAA Hawaii Islanders of the Pacific Coast League from 1975 to 1987 before the team moved to Colorado Springs.
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History
Before 1975, Honolulu's main outdoor stadium had been Honolulu Stadium, a wooden stadium on King Street. However, it had reached the end of its useful life by the 1960s, and was well below the standards for Triple-A baseball. The need for a new stadium was hastened by the Rainbows' move to NCAA Division I. Located west of downtown Honolulu and two miles north of Honolulu International Airport, Aloha Stadium was constructed in 1975 at a cost of $37 million.
The first sporting event ever held at Aloha Stadium was a football game played between the University of Hawaii and Texas A&I (now Texas A&M-Kingsville) on September 13, 1975. The crowd was 32,247.
The stadium was somewhat problematic for its initial primary tenant, the Islanders. It was located in west-central Oahu, far from the Islanders' fan base, and many fans were unwilling to make the drive. Additionally, while TheBus stopped right at the main gate of Honolulu Stadium, the Aloha Stadium stop was located some distance from the gate. As a result, attendance plummeted and never really recovered--a major factor in the franchise's ultimate move to the mainland.
Additionally, stadium management initially refused to allow the use of metal spikes. When the Tacoma Twins complied with a parent-club directive to wear the spikes, stadium management turned off the center field lights. After 35 minutes, the umpires forfeited the game to the Twins. The Islanders protested, claiming they had no control over the lights. However, the PCL sided with the Twins, citing a league rule that the home team is responsible for providing acceptable playing facilities.
As originally built, Aloha Stadium could be reconfigured into various configurations for different sport venues and other purposes. Four movable 7,000-seat sections, each 3.5 million pounds could move using air casters into a diamond configuration for baseball (also used for soccer), an oval for football, or a triangle for concerts. In January 2007, the stadium was permanently locked into its football configuration due to cost and maintenance issues. An engineer from Rolair Systems, the NASA spin-off company that engineered the system, claims that the problem was caused by a concrete contractor that ignored specifications for the concrete pads under the stadium.
There have been numerous discussions with Hawaii 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. Much of the rust is due to a design mistake in the choice of weathering steel to build the stadium. It was intended to create a protective patina that would eliminate the need for painting, but in the ocean salt-laden air of Honolulu, it has never stopped rusting.
A 2005 study by Honolulu engineering firm Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. determined that the stadium required $99 million to be completely restored and an additional $115 million for ongoing maintenance and refurbishment over the next 20 years to extend its useful life. 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 may also be used to attempt to lure a Super Bowl to Hawaii in the future.
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 allotted $12.4 million to be used towards removing corrosion and rust from the structure.
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Expansion and improvements
In 2003, the stadium surface was changed from AstroTurf (which had been in place since the stadium opened) to FieldTurf. In July 2011 the field was replaced by a UBU Sports Speed S5-M synthetic turf system.
In 2008, the state of Hawaii approved the bill of $185 million to refurbish the aging Aloha Stadium. In 2010, Aloha Stadium completely retrofitted its scoreboard and video screen to be more up to date with its high definition capability. 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 openings in the corners of the stadium to add more seats.
In 2011, the playing field was refurbished in part due to a naming rights sponsorship from Hawaiian Airlines. As a result of the sponsorship deal, the field was referred to as Hawaiian Airlines Field at Aloha Stadium.
The airline did not renew sponsorship after the deal expired in 2016. As a result, the field went unnamed until late August, when Hawaiian Tel Federal Credit Union signed a 3-year/$275,000 agreement. As of 2016, the field is now known as Hawaiian Tel Federal Credit Union Field at Aloha Stadium.
In early 2017, there was a study in the Honolulu StarAdvertiser about replacing Aloha Stadium due to safety concerns and a liability risk. The plan is to build a smaller 30,000 seat stadium on the existing property and also build commercial development around the stadium. In theory, it would save the state millions of dollars instead of renovating and keep the existing stadium as it is.
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. The series was played as 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 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.
2013
On June 2, 2013, the stadium played host to a rugby league test match where Samoa defeated the USA 34-10.
2015
In June, the Brisbane Broncos from the Australasian-based National Rugby League (NRL) competition organized for a rugby league match to be played at Aloha Stadium against NRL rivals Penrith Panthers later in 2015. However, in September the NRL blocked the idea and the game didn't go ahead.
The United States women's national soccer team was scheduled play a game against Trinidad and Tobago as part of their World Cup Winning Victory Tour at the stadium on December 6, 2015; however, the game was canceled the day before gameday due to concerns over the turf being unsafe to play on.
2016
Aloha Stadium is also the venue for five public high school graduation ceremonies. Radford High School, Mililani High School, Aiea High School, James Campbell High School, and Pearl City High School will hold their 2016 graduation ceremonies at the stadium in early June.
Concerts
- The Police in their final US concert on their Synchronicity Tour on February 25, 1984
- The Eagles on their Hell Freezes Over Tour on November 6, 1995
- Michael Jackson's HIStory World Tour on January 3-4, 1997 70.000 people - his only US shows that decade. He was the first person to sell out Aloha Stadium.
- Gloria Estefan during her Evolution World Tour with a sold-out concert on May 3, 1997.
- Whitney Houston ended her Pacific Rim Tour with a sold-out concert on May 28, 1997.
- The Rolling Stones during their Bridges To Babylon Tour on January 23-24, 1998
- Mariah Carey ended her Butterfly World Tour with a sold-out concert on February 21, 1998.
- Celine Dion on her Let's Talk About Love Tour on February 12, 1999.
- 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. The capacity for her 1999 show was expanded from the original capacity of 35,000 to 38,000 to meet the high ticket demand.
- U2's final stop on their Vertigo Tour on December 9, 2006 Attendance Record: 45,815
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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