Fieldturf delayed There will be no Fieldturf for this year's Pro Bowl.
AstroTurf will remain
Pro Bowl snub motivates Titans
in place for the Pro BowlStar-Bulletin staff
The installation of the artificial surface at Aloha Stadium has been pushed back to sometime between April 1 and May 22 or 23, board member Robin Campaniano said yesterday at a meeting of the Stadium Authority.
The project was initially to have been done between the Dec. 25 Hawaii Bowl and the Pro Bowl, with the new playing surface in place for the Feb. 2 NFL All-Star game.
But days after an official contract for the project was called a "done deal," the principals in such an agreement -- including Gov. Linda Lingle and the NFL -- decided it was more prudent to wait, Campaniano said.
"I have to call guys at the airport to stop them from getting on the plane," said Fieldturf CEO John Gilman, who insisted his company would have met the original deadline.
"We were committed to a date and we were going to have it done," Gilman said.
But that 38-day window was scrapped in favor of a time frame that allows complete installation of the new turf to take place in a single, less-costly phase rather than in two parts. And it ensures that even in a worst-case scenario, the 2003 Pro Bowl would be played at Aloha Stadium.
"It allows us more flexibility in case there's a rain delay, for example," Campaniano said.
But the postponement is also due in part to the fact that a definitive contract had not yet been nailed down, and time was running out. There is now additional time not just to complete the estimated $1.3 million project, but also to reach a final agreement on it.
The Stadium Authority unanimously approved moving a tentative contract for further amendments yesterday. Discussions will take place between Hawaii's attorney general and the NFL to come up with a refined document, Campaniano said.
"There are still some points of contention," he said.
"There were some outstanding things that needed to be concluded," Gilman said.
Gilman praised Lingle for taking a leadership position in the matter with the proposed start date closing in.
"Thank God for the governor stepping in," he said. "I think she's been terrific in the last few days she's been involved."
The additional breathing room makes it a much simpler situation, Gilman said.
"Everybody is happy that it's going to happen after the Pro Bowl," said Stadium Manager Eddie Hayashi.
Said Hawaii Tourism Authority executive director Rex Johnson: "I'm an advocate of fulfilling our agreement with the NFL, which is to make our best effort to put Fieldturf or something like it in Aloha Stadium.
"As long as they say they're going to get it done, then I'm a happy camper."
Hawaii football coach June Jones, a vocal critic of Aloha Stadium's current AstroTurf surface and an advocate for the installation of Fieldturf, had a similar response.
"I'm just glad it's going in," Jones said.
Star-Bulletin reporter Rosemarie Bernardo contributed to this report.