Sidelines
Government worked Thursday. The process worked for Fieldturf
You can argue with the result. You can argue with the process. You can argue with the timing and the animosity and with the goading smirk on Larry Price's face.
But whether you want to admit it or not, the Stadium Authority did exactly what it was put in place to do, what it was designed to do.
It did its job.
Now, personally, I think Fieldturf is great stuff. I have heard nothing but great things from players about it, and I really do think it's the next best thing to grass -- better, if you're playing multiple games a week on it. In fact, I would bet installing Fieldturf at Aloha Stadium would even help the University of Hawaii in football recruiting.
Fieldturf is the latest fad. Everybody says so. It's sweeping the nation!
But could it really get put in that fast for that little and work out that well?
That was the multi-million dollar question.
Have you heard that saying about deals that look too good to be true? The Stadium Authority has.
This was a pressure sales job, everything about it screaming, "Trust us! Sign the deal now, don't ask any questions. Sign it! Before you lose this unbelievable offer!"
It looks like this deal was already done, which should be enough to make anyone wary. At Thursday's meeting, Fieldturf CEO John Gilman said the product for this project had already been made, and was sitting in the warehouse ready to go. Wasn't this deal already done? Gilman said he was "confused by the various levels involved."
He wasn't the only one. The Hawaii Tourism Authority signed a deal with the NFL to install a surface to the NFL's liking. (Read: "Fieldturf.") Everyone was ready to go. Just one problem. The HTA had made a promise it couldn't deliver.
So then the Stadium Authority stood in the way of the deal that was already done, the deal that everyone wanted.
The trouble makers.
Weren't they listening? Trust us! Don't worry about details! Sign the deal now!
So what if there had been no Stadium Authority to stand in the way of progress? The deal would have sailed through. We would have trusted. We would have signed.
But who would have asked the questions?
We might have never found out about what Price called a "$2 million mistake." (Gilman said he also caught it, and that the cost was less than that, anyway.)
We would have never found out that when Gilman said everything could be done in 45 days, he really meant 65 days.
We would have never found out that when Fieldturf said it could be installed in two weeks, this would be simply laying the new stuff on a crown specifically designed for AstroTurf instead, and that this is not what Fieldturf itself would recommend. (To be fair, Fieldturf is installed over AstroTurf crowns in about half of these replacement cases, depending on what the field's owner wants to do.)
We wouldn't have found out that Gilman is so indifferent about missing high school football games and other early events in order to install the stuff.
And all that is just from one meeting.
These are not things you'd like to find out AFTER the deal has been signed and your old turf has been ripped out and there's no turning back now.
Somebody had to play the bad guy. Somebody had to say, "Wait a minute," and ask about future costs and long-term maintenance and whether this wonderful space age stuff really works in an old bucket of rust.
Somebody had to look hard at a deal that was too good to be true. And so now maybe Fieldturf will work enough miracles to get glistening new turf in before the first games. Maybe it was just a two-hour exercise in okole covering. But at least now we know a few things -- some big, some little, all important in a project such as this -- that were never brought to light before. And never would have been.
It may have annoyed you. You might not like it. But the Stadium Authority did what it was appointed to do. Its job. For once, government worked.
Kalani Simpson can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com