HONOLULU \u2014 \u201cGnaw-sed. GNAW-SED? NAY-sed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael Yadao, an enthusiastic man who found himself in a new position and an unfamiliar place on Thursday, chewed on a couple options to pronounce the acronym for the project that for years has dominated discussion at monthly Stadium Authority meetings \u2014\u00a0the New Aloha Stadium Entertainment District.<\/p>\n
The Downtown Honolulu gathering was the first (and supposedly last) such board meeting off the Halawa footprint of shuttered Aloha Stadium, which is now fortified by dust screens and fencing in advance of its piece-by-piece demolition. The board is setting up temporary work trailers in the Lower Halawa Lot to use for meetings starting in February, officials said.<\/p>\n
Yadao, a longtime former board member with a construction background and an affable demeanor, introduced his blueprint to the proceedings by having more stadium staff present their areas of expertise, in conjunction with like-minded board members, than was customary of his predecessors.<\/p>\n
Then, on the fourth floor of the Leiopapa A Kamehameha State Office Tower, Yadao opened a box of manapuas and held one in his right hand, and paid homage to a signature football call of the late, legendary sportscaster Jim Leahey.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are a manapua away from this being done,\u201d he said in a manner akin to Leahey estimating a close measurement to a first-down marker. In Yadao’s case, he referred to the signing of agreements for outstanding areas of negotiation between state officials and development team Aloha Halawa District Partners \u2014\u00a0a master development agreement for the considerable non-stadium components of the 98-acre, mixed-use site, a reciprocal easement agreement and a ground lease for the non-stadium areas.<\/p>\n
Those three items are closely intertwined and are expected to be announced as one. Officials said an \u201caggressive\u201d timeline for agreements on contract framework is the start of February and signings could occur in late February.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have made significant, significant progress in the last couple of weeks getting us to a place where we and AHDP can sign these contracts,\u201d said Yadao, who added he could not go into specifics for legal reasons.<\/p>\n
Underscoring his passion for the project, the Damien alumnus Yadao wore a vintage Aloha Stadium polo shirt, recognizable on ushers and other stadium staff for much of its five-decade history, branded with logos of various tenants like the NFL, University of Hawaii, Hawaii Islanders, the Oahu Interscholastic Association and more.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, AHDP\u2019s heavy machinery for demolition is expected on site on Feb. 14, and an on-site blessing with VIPs has been tentatively arranged for Feb. 17. Full dismantling \u201creally commences in March,\u201d Yadao said.<\/p>\n
The overall target date for completion for a 22,500-seat venue, paid for with $400 million of state money and a to-be-determined sum from AHDP, remains March of 2029.<\/p>\n
Near the end of the meeting, there were two noteworthy personnel moves.<\/p>\n
In an expected procedure, Yadao was upgraded from deputy stadium manager to interim stadium manager via the board\u2019s unanimous vote, putting him in the position last occupied by Chris Sadayasu.<\/p>\n
In addition, Stadium Authority chair Eric Fujimoto announced he would relinquish the chair\u2019s role and revert to standard board membership.<\/p>\n
\u201cAloha Stadium has always had a special place in my heart,\u201d said Fujimoto, an Aiea resident who succeeded Brennon Morioka as chair last July. He thanked stadium staff and current and former board members for their support.<\/p>\n
Eric Fujimoto, who became Stadium Authority board chair in July 2025, stepped back into a standard board role on Thursday. (Spectrum News\/Brian McInnis)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Walter Thoemmes, middle, was unanimously voted to be the new Stadium Authority chair after he was nominated by vice chair Andrew Pereira, left. (Spectrum News\/Brian McInnis)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Vice chair Andrew Pereira credited Fujimoto for applying his \u201cfinancial acumen\u201d in negotiations that led to the signings of the contracts between the state and AHDP on the stadium construction and demolition and its ground lease. Pereira then nominated board member Walter Thoemmes, the managing director of Kamehameha Schools Commercial Real Estate, to succeed him. Thoemmes, who did not speak at the meeting, was approved unanimously.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving Walter in this seat at this time, is perfect,\u201d Yadao said. \u201cThis came from Eric \u2014 \u2018hey, you\u2019ve exhausted my skill set. Now we need somebody else.\u2019 I\u2019m blown away by how\u00a0\u2026 Eric volunteered to do that.\u201d He noted Thoemmes has experience working with Stanford Carr, the de facto leader of AHDP.<\/p>\n
State Sen. Glenn Wakai, whose district includes the Halawa site, said he will attempt to promote a handful of measures to aid the project during the current legislative session: getting the Aloha Stadium budget ceiling raised so that $49.5 million in previously approved money can enter the stadium\u2019s coffers; revisiting a casino possibility in the \u201cAloha Live!\u201d district surrounding the stadium; revisit naming rights for the stadium which could convey upward of $1 million per year; and getting a law passed for digital signage.<\/p>\n
Brian McInnis<\/i><\/a>\u00a0covers the state\u2019s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii.\u00a0He can be reached at\u00a0<\/i>brian.mcinnis@<\/i><\/a>charter.com<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source spectrumlocalnews.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" HONOLULU \u2014 \u201cGnaw-sed. GNAW-SED? NAY-sed.\u201d Michael Yadao, an enthusiastic man who found himself in a new position and an unfamiliar place on Thursday, chewed on a couple options to pronounce the acronym for the project that for years has dominated discussion at monthly Stadium Authority meetings \u2014\u00a0the New Aloha Stadium Entertainment District. The Downtown Honolulu […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2257838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[437282,351935,22811,437283,350846,22080,21848,21737],"class_list":["post-2257837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-app-college-sports","tag-app-sports","tag-app-top-stories","tag-brian-mcinnis","tag-college","tag-hawaii","tag-sports","tag-top-stories"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/New-stadium-manager-urges-optimism-on-NASED-project.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2257837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2257837"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2257837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2257839,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2257837\/revisions\/2257839"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2257838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2257837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2257837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2257837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}