Kokua Line June Watanabe

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Aloha Stadium has strategy to curb confetti

Question: Does anyone from the state or Stadium Authority ever watch a University of Hawaii football game at Aloha Stadium on television? I'm embarrassed for Hawaii for people everywhere to see all the trash on the field; it's like paper snow. Why do the newspapers give away free newspapers on game day?

Answer: The tossing of paper "confetti" onto the field and stands at Aloha Stadium has been a long-standing problem, but it's been a difficult act to control.

However, officials do have a "plan of action" to curtail the activity, said Scott Chan, manager of Aloha Stadium.

They will begin warning fans to stop the practice beginning at Saturday's UH game against Fresno State.

The plan is to scroll messages across the big screen warning fans that officials will begin enforcing the restriction against tossing strips of paper in celebration.

Violators initially won't be escorted out -- "it will be a gradual process" to put the ban into effect, Chan said.

Stadium officials also plan to work with the University of Hawaii and its major sponsors to reduce the availability of paper as well as allow other means of celebration.

One request will be for all leftover team lineups, given away for free, to be removed from the premises once a game has started, Chan said.

For its part, the Star-Bulletin is not the source of the confetti.

"The Star-Bulletin was asked by UH a couple of years ago to discontinue selling newspapers on the property so they could reduce the confetti situation," said Dave Kennedy, vice presidentmarketing for the Star-Bulletin. "We complied."

The tossing of confetti has been called almost a "tradition." Chan himself remembers it taking place at the old Honolulu Stadium.

But it "is a distraction, it is unsafe" and officials hope that with the loosening of restrictions in other areas, fans will find more appropriate ways to celebrate, he said.

"We're hoping, because we allow more promotion items to come in, that they can cheer and celebrate in those ways," Chan said.

For example, the stadium now allows the use of once-banned pompons, as well as the noisy ThunderStix, which are confined mostly to the student section.

The thinking now is to help the 12th member of the home team -- the crowd -- to make noise and celebrate appropriately.

Mahalo

Belatedly, to Sgt. 1st Class Steven S. Moore and Sgt. Dave (don't remember his last name) of the U.S. Army Recruiting Station at Windward City Shopping Center. They came to my aid on Sept. 12, when I needed to move a mountain of "stuff" from a storage room above Hungry Ear Records. It took 4 1/2 hours of their personal time, and my daughter and I couldn't have done it without their help. They gave of their time as a community service. Our island is a much better place to live with people like that. -- Michelle Yamashiro, Kailua