Swap meet staying on football days

For at least this season, University of Hawaii home football dates will continue to coincide with those of Aloha Stadium's swap meets.

Stadium manager Scott Chan said yesterday he was optimistic the stadium "can address that within the next two or three years," but things would remain the same for the time being, with the meets running from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays and UH games kicking off just after 6 p.m.

Fans who attend the games complain of delays caused by the end of the meets being so close to when the stadium gates open at 2:30 p.m. for football.

"We need to make sure we're sensitive to the needs of the swap meet vendors as well," Chan said. "We don't want to offset their livelihood. We're working at it, we realize how important it is to the (UH) athletic department, and we realize how important it is to (the stadium) as well, not having two operations overlap."