Honolulu, HI

Aloha Stadium was opened in 1975, a replacement for the wooden Honolulu Stadium, to help the University of Hawai'i Rainbow Warriors move to NCAA Division 1. The other main tenant, the Tripple A Hawaii Islanders, weren't so lucky. Aloha Stadium, which technically is in the suburb of Halawa, is located in west-central Oahu, far from the fan base. Public transportation, which used to stop in front of the main gate at the old park, now was some distance from the new front door. This caused attendance to drop and forced the team to move to Colorado Springs.

Initially stadium management refused to allow the players to wear metal spikes. During a game in May of 1976, the Tacoma Twins listened to their parent club and had the players wear the spikes. In response, stadium management turned off the center field lights. After a 35 minute delay, the game was forfeited to the Twins. Both teams ended the season in a tie and were forced to play a one game playoff, which the Islanders won.

The stadium initially had four moveable 7000 seat sections, each weighing 3.5 million pounds. These sections moved on air casters into a diamond shape for baseball, an oval for football or a triangle for concerts. In 2007, due to cost and maintenance issues, the stadium was permanently locked into its football shape. Rolair Systems, a spin-off company from NASA that created the system, claims that a contractor used the incorrect kind of concrete which caused the problem.

This park is in bad shape as it is rusting and needs to updated. It was determined that it would cost about $216 million to extend the life of this stadium another 20 or 30 years, but lawmakers decided to authorize $300 million to build a new stadium (and possibly to lure a Super Bowl). Various improvements have been done over the years to keep from having to demolish the stadium before a replacement is built.

© 2018 Paul Healey. Photos © their owners. Used without permission. I have not been to this park.