Volcanic Ash: Is bigger better for stadium or just far more expensive? | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

There’s potential good news and bad from Ha­lawa as demolition of the old Aloha Stadium begins to make way for the new.

The good news is that public scorn appears to have motivated the state and its developer partners to rightsize what has been The Incredible Shrinking Aloha Stadium.

The news could turn bad, however, when we find out who will pay for it.

The 50,000-seat Aloha Stadium closed in 2020 because of negligent maintenance. The Legislature promised taxpayers a 35,000-seat replacement for $350 million in a public-private partnership that included developing the surrounding 98 acres with housing, hotels and retail.

But as lawmakers dithered about scope and management, the size of the new stadium kept getting smaller — to 25,000 and then 22,500 bare bleacher seats.

It was smaller than the old Honolulu Stadium and far from a $350 million improvement over the makeshift campus field University of Hawaii football fans have made do with for five years.

The new Aloha Stadium has seemed more about lucrative surrounding development than the actual stadium.

So it was welcome news when the Honolulu Star- Advertiser reported that Stanford Carr, master developer in the private partnership working with the state, said plans now call for up to 31,000 seats, none of them bleachers. Carr said 28 luxury suites are now planned, up from 10.

That’s getting in the ballpark of a reasonably sized $350 million stadium, but we haven’t seen specific plans or drawings.

Carr has long said the stadium needed upsizing to draw people to the attractions around it.

He told the Legislature last year, “You need to develop a stadium at a scale that will attract more venues, entertainers and bring people in for concerts.”

Carr said the ultimate cost of the expanded stadium he envisioned could reach $650 million — nearly double what taxpayers were originally promised. Honolulu rail, anyone?

So with the shrinking stadium now back on growth hormones, the big question becomes: Who foots the bill?

Legislators have insisted they’ll put up no more than $350 million and that private partners, who will be responsible for operating and maintaining the stadium as well as building it, would have to fund additional costs with proceeds from the surrounding development.

But lawmakers have changed their tune on the matter before and there’s already been talk of raising additional stadium funds by dubious means.

One scheme is to include a casino on the site, which would turn Aloha Stadium into an entirely different kind of gaming center than envisioned.

The Stadium Authority has floated financial tricks such as tax increment financing or a community facilities district, which would use city-issued bonds repaid with future property taxes from the stadium development. This would essentially force the city, which has its own problems, to become a major financial donor to a state project.

We can only speculate because actual contracts between the state and its development partners have been withheld as top secret and their terms never made public.

If surrounding development revenue won’t support a reasonably sized stadium without more taxpayer investment, either the state got a bum deal or legislators’ financial premise was false.

Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.