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Stadium deal is
many steps away

MEETINGS of the Aloha Stadium Authority board can be very interesting. No, yesterday's meeting did not have the comedy of Larry Price toying with some poor traveling FieldTurf salesman or the sudden drama of attorney Michael Green pulling out and reading a scathing letter written by June Jones.

But it was interesting. Yesterday, the Stadium Authority did what it has been publicly pressured to do for some time. It introduced a motion that it be given the authority to have the option to adjust rent prices for University of Hawaii football.

That's it. That doesn't mean anything happened. That doesn't necessarily mean anything is going to happen. Now this proposal goes to the Department of Accounting and General Services, to the State Comptroller, to the governor for approval. That's the next step. Then there would be public notices, more public meetings, more discussion. More time. We'll see.

"It's a start," chairman Tony Guerrero said.

And this: "It's not waiving the rent," Guerrero said. "It's having the authority to waive the rent."

Exactly. That's if it comes to pass, which could be months from now. It's out of the Stadium Authority's hands.

But then, it was never in the Stadium Authority's hands. Not now. Not then. Not ever.

UH pays to play in the stadium because that's the law.

"Even if we wanted to," Guerrero said during the hearing, "we don't have the authority to waive the rent." That's why they had to make this proposal in the first place.

But somehow, as this topic has gone public -- and there were a few ruffled feathers on that yesterday -- UH has played the victim role and so by default the stadium has been stuck as the bad guy in all of this.

And that could be why so many board members went out of their way to trumpet their cooperative nature toward UH. The Stadium Authority is tired of being the bad guy. Believe me, this board is all but singing the school fight song.

Guerrero captured the mood of the moment when he said, "We've got one stadium. We've got one college. We've got one football team. We should be one."

But it's not quite so simple. There were also questions yesterday, and answers, too. And so we cleared up a few things. The first being that it is not the stadium board that is charging UH money, state law is.

Second, a common misconception is that Hawaii pays about $800,000 in rent to use the stadium each season. Well, no. About $500,000 of that is for expenses (as Herman Frazier said the other day, cleaning up), which everyone must pay, including high schools. Only the rest of it is rent -- 7 1/2 percent of ticket receipts or $10,000 per game, whichever is more. Which for UH is something more than 300 grand.

Which means that, best case, no rent, Hawaii only saves $300,000 here.

And third, UH is already getting a special deal. The standard rent is 10 percent, Guerrero said.

Oh, and one thing on that. Near the end of the hearing stadium manager Eddie Hayashi felt compelled to ask a question of UH associate athletic director Tom Sadler: "Tom, when are we going to get paid?"

Ooh, that's not good.

(Sadler would later explain that Hawaii's new ticketing system has slowed the process a little. In the meeting he told the board that he hoped to have the money in about a week.)

Look, we -- and anyone who was due a bowl bonus -- know UH has had cash-flow issues, which is one reason why this stadium rent business is coming up in the first place.

High schools don't have to pay rent. The Pro Bowl doesn't have to pay rent (though it does help with infrastructure and upkeep). You can't blame UH for asking.

Most college teams get the concessions, and UH doesn't. Most get parking money. No again. It would be nice if UH could pay a little less, that's true.

Everybody's sympathetic. This stadium board seems determined to be the good guy this time. But you can talk all you want about robbing Peter to pay Paul. Doesn't matter. Paul needs his money.

So maybe the board will eventually get the OK to adjust UH's rent. (Which means, a few joked, the board could raise it, too. I think they were joking. Sadler hopes they were joking.) If it gets it, the next question is this: "Can the stadium afford it?" member Kevin Chong Kee asked. That's the $300,000 question here.

Sadler said all he's shooting for is a "win-win" -- but that money still has to come from somewhere.

Good thing the stadium is talking about raising admission to the swap meet to $1 from 50 cents.