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Anything related to Hawaii Football or Hawaii Athletics How the team/coaches are doing? Game Day Experience? How the UH AD is doing?
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I just wanted to say Mahalo to you Craig Angelos for bringing the program in the right direction. I wish you had more time here but know that all the fans,coaches, student athletes appreciate what you have done. You were very open and transparent to us fans and we won’t forget you as one of the best ADs we ever had at UH. Go Bows!
Despite what happened with Craig Angelos and your feelings towards President Lassner and the upper management, we still need to support the student athletes that are not at fault but are suffering from this. Pulling out your donations and not attending games will be the sure end of Hawaii Athletics and I know you don’t want that. I understand you want to take a stand for what is right and bringing justice for Angelos. But as a long time UH fan and hopefully a continued UH fan I urge you to support the athletes because of their hard work, excellence on game day and in the classrooms they will continue to make Hawaii proud! Go Bows!
I’ll be as vague as possible since some places do the same. If you want people to respect you, be honest be transparent. The truth is going to come out one way or another. If you are afraid or don’t like change then maybe it’s time to move on to something else. Whenever something is going good, there’s always something else that turns it bad why because they don’t like change for the better.
Personal Opinion of the game day atmosphere.
As you walk over from the parking structure and look down, you can see Na Koa’s booster club having their pre-game BBQ over by Klum Gym and I thought to myself, I guess we can have grills and parties on campus? But I also believe you are able to get into that party for $25 from what I’ve read.
For the first time this season I was able to take part in the pre-game festivities over at the LES. For what it’s worth, it’s a cute little get up that can bring families a little bit of enjoyment before entering the stadium for the game. I’ll admit, I was expecting more and came away a little underwhelmed. You’ll see two bounce houses, a tackling and throwing station and a picture taking area in front if the helmet the football team used to run out of. I got to enjoy music from B.E.T but I found is odd that the music stage faces towards the third base side of the baseball field and not towards the grandstand of the stadium. Between the stage and the grandstand you’ll see a little gaming area with Jenga, Axe throwing and other games that adults would usually enjoy while having a beer. So the real entertainment is the people playing the games and not the band. The “beer garden” is not a beer garden, it’s just a vendor selling beer. The pre-game festivities at the LES wasn’t a bad experience, but I do think the placement of everything can be improved for better enjoyment.
As I sat down behind home plate enjoying the B.E.T show, I did notice the San Jose State fan group enjoying a tailgating party in left field behind the batting cage. That’s not a bad thing, but what about the UH fans, create something like that for us. The baseball stadium alone you’ll see a lot of wasted space that could be revenue generators for the athletic program. Instead of having parked cars in the concourse of the home teams bullpen and Heineken bullpen area why not turn those areas into revenue generators. Give us an actual tailgate area, a beer garden, SOMETHING. I have noticed there is no creativity in showing UH fans a good time.
IMO fans can understand the implications of tail gaiting in the parking structure. There are fire hazards and no fire lanes in case of a fire. But what fans don’t understand is why can we not have a poke bowl, spam musubi, a bento while waiting for the game to start? What are the on campus and state laws in regards to tailgating on upper campus where everything is open air parking. Hawaii people tend to respect everything and clean up after themselves. The UH campus as a whole are shooting themselves in the foot as far as generating revenue and losing the fan base.
We are probably where most fans thought we would be, 2-3 heading into conference play. I personally had us at 3-2 beating Stanford, but I think we can all agree that Vandy game should have been an easy win.
As we move in to Conference play, the hope is that something has finally clicked with this Warrior football team. The second half versus New Mexico State was probably the most complete half we have seen from this squad all season. It seems that the coaching staff simplified the formations and personnel and stuck to the simple concepts of the offense. Brayden Schager looked a lot more comfortable and confident in decision making in the second half. Jordan Johnson has been a sparkplug to this offense and it looks like the offense is coming into its own finally.
The defense held NMSU to 78 yards in the second half and showed relentless pressure and grit. If this football team can keep up that brand of football displayed in the second half of the NMSU game they may have to potential to win 5 conference games and go bowling. We are lucky to not have Boise State and Fresno State on our schedule this year and I’m only seeing Wyoming and Air Force as the most likely losses in conference play. Every other Mountain West team UH will face on the rest of their schedule has improved but they are winnable games.
Best Case Scenario (Kool Aid) 7-6 (5-3) in conference play
Worst Case Scenario 5-8 (3-5) in conference play.
Even though it was on a Friday afternoon, UH football had a winnable game versus a name brand PAC-12 opponent for the home season opener and they were unable to sellout a 15K seat “stadium.” You can point finger in any which way or at whoever you want, but the problem doesn’t fall on just the UH Atheltic department. It took me a while to get the courage to write this because I like to avoid negativity as much as possible, but here it goes. After attending the first two home games of the season it’s easy to see where the state of the WHOLE athletic program is but I’m going to use the football program as an example.
Why are our attendance numbers so low? There are many reasons for this and we can go on forever. I’d first like to say, kudos to the former UHAD for throwing the best version of a football stadium you could in such a short amount of time and with the budget limits that you had. The venue is cozy and intimate for a college football game and for the most part a success for a “temporary,” stadium while we wait for NASED to be built in 2040. If I remember correctly my season tickets at Aloha Stadium were the same as it is now for sideline premium seating. Personally I don’t mind paying these premium prices because I know that the program needs it. But for the casual fan or the fan that really wants that tailgate party, it isn’t going to happen. I’ve heard it over and over again for fans, how do you expect us to purchase tickets at the same price as we are at the stadium. Honestly those corner sideline seats and end zone seats should be $10-15 a piece at the most. You need to get fans into the stadium for them to spend money.
Concessions - you need quick hitters- Musubi’s, Poke Bowls, grab and go bentos etc. We don’t need to be wine and dined while we’re trying to get back to our seats within 5 minutes.
Tailgating – has been the biggest talked about topic as far as attendance goes and it is true. Tailgating is a tradition that friends and family took pride in and looked forward too during the offseason. Parking lot DJs, shave ice stands, the wild tailgating lane walking up to the stadium. We’ll never have this again, but let’s make new traditions. I think fans are aware now that there are fire codes and fire lanes laws that don’t allow us to tailgate in the parking structure. What’s wrong with upper campus? Is it the upper campus administration? Sure does sound like it, they haven’t been really supportive for athletics in the past either. How about this, you charge $500 per stall on upper campus, regulate grilling to electric and gas grills. Provide each paid for Tailgating stall with a Trash can and UH logo pop up tent and call it a day. Lower and upper campus can split the revenue 50/50. 1000 parking stalls, 500K, 250k split both way’s. WIN WIN for everyone. You don’t want the tent and trash can, $300 per stall and you are responsible for your own trash and clean up.
Stadium and lower campus upgrades- Regardless if NASED gets built or not, history shows the state will provide the bare minimum in helping UH athletics, odd being we’re the only Div. 1 athletic program in the state. With that said, I think fans are slowly adapting to change and are slowly changing their tune for an on-campus stadium. Yes traffic can and may very well be bad, but its 6-7 Saturday’s a year. But it’s can’t be worse than competing with traffic in Manoa M-F, rush hour traffic and 4-5 other schools in the area to deal with, that along with 20,000 faculty and staff at UH Manoa.
Mr. Angelos has already stated they are planning a lower campus master plan which is relieving to hear. But let’s include a revamped on-campus stadium into this picture. How about this, relocate the sand volleyball courts to Cooke practice field where the new track and soccer stadium will be. The whole complex on that side can be named after Patsy Mink and other influential females in the programs history. Extend the TC Ching concrete complex building over where the sand courts used to be to add 1500-2000 seats. Build two levels of Press and luxury suites to replace those temporary set ups and you have one sideline of a stadium complete. Concessions and bathrooms are taken cared of for that side already. Relocate the field and bring it up right next to the Ching building. Build the Diamond Head end zone so it connects to the Les Murakami stadium so we are able to utilize the concessions and bathrooms in the baseball stadium. With all that relocation, it will open up a ton of space on the Makai sideline and Ewa end zone to have a bigger sideline section and incorporate a football facility within that structure. You can also use an athlete’s lounge level for a sideline suite section for club and corporate donors.
Klum Gym is a waste of space and should be transformed into a two-story weight room and training facility. Transfer all the weights and equipment that sit in the Waterhouse weight room for the bottom level and add a turfed level to the top. All those training equipment you see behind the Makai sideline can also be transferred to the Klum facility. Now with all that open space underneath the Arena, You can build a new and bigger H-zone, make a pre-game indoor club area for all sports. The budget I know is small but be creative and at the same time the State needs to INVEST more in the program.
Fundraising and donor levels – There is a big problem with the way UH runs it’s AKA, H-club and smaller booster clubs. I have a friend who’s a fan of another program and he explained to me there is one foundation that determines donor levels regardless of where the money goes too.
UH football for example, You have the H-club and you have Na Koa. You can donate 100K to Na Koa, but it won’t mean anything when you want to buy season tickets for football. You’ll still have to spend money with the H-club account in order to get to a certain order of priority. That is one small example in a huge problem. Anytime time you donate to any program, it should be shown in a main account under your name that determines your status level for ticket priority, prizes, giveaways or whatever it may be.
Where does this UH athletic program want to go? Do we keep complacent and roll with the punches or do we take that gamble put our eggs in one basket and go for it. If the UHAD and upper campus show’s it’s doing its part in growing the program, investing in facilities and showing progress the fans will take notice and reciprocate.
Extra Credit: Here’s an idea, Ohana Day. Something like Island Day spring game or the Title 9 social held last year. Let’s include all programs in a one day or one weekend event. Invite families down to lower campus before fall or the spring seasons and have the athletic programs showcase the facilities, player introductions and just show what UH is and the vision for the future. We can have children hit in the batting cages or take ground balls at the Les or Wahine softball stadium, shoot some hoops in the arena. Have some play around flag football games, provide a media area where friends and family can have fun taking pictures and fake interviews. Provide future facility plans and hold a fundraising event with silent auctions or volunteer donations. Beer gardens, food trucks, games, prizes, craft fairs. Make it an annual event that brings the fan base and athletic program together.
This athletic program has potential for so much growth, we just need the right people in the right places to do it.
I think that UH has to do a better job of doing things better that they can control which are penalties and execution on simple things like special teams. Schager and the WRs are exciting and they seem to be growing together but the OL has been disappointing and is contributing to the poor RB play.
The defense has been solid for the most part but we are thin if Stone and Taylor are out for an extended period of time.
The good.
Coach Chang
Some offense elements (receiving Corp), (QB arm strength)
Some defensive elements (d line)(corner backs)
Skilled position players are on this roster.
The bad.
QB holds onto ball toooooo long.
O line. (But to be fair- QB needs to get rid of the ball quicker, running backs need to run with eyes wide open, not into closed gaps.
Linebackers, strong safety need to bring their game to the line of scrimmage.
The ugly.
Overall lack of discipline is disappointing. Grow up quick, show some respect to your opponents and your coaches.
It’s a bad look thus far by some players, cheap penalties, poor sportsmanship.
Play with class, win or lose.
Hawaii football is usually bruise em’ football. Tough and clean.
This years edition has real skilled athletes who can make some noise.
I would have sat some guys for poor judgment plays this past week. No excuse for cheap play.
Go bows! I’m pulling for you every play, every game.
😎🌈
Hi my name is Nolan and pretty active on twitter. I just want to say our pregame activities are really fun for the kids to enjoy before the kickoff. Thank you for setting it up.
I think this season so far is really good. I love our BRADDAHHOOD our team our players and coaches. Super excited our run&shoot is back and having Coach Timmy calling all the offensive plays. I can see there are so much love and passion in our team. We are building something so special. In my honest opinion win or lose I am there. I am a total big fan of Coach Timmy Chang being our head coach!!
We all need to come out support our team BRADDAHHOOD!! True fans rain or shine are there the whole season!!
Lastly I sit section 155 row 8 with my 3 kids the whole season. My kids really love watching Hawaii football. One final thing we need to keep our TC Ching the stadium as our permanent home.. keep all the money for our student athletes!! No drama no more wasting money and time!! Keep it here at home in Manoa and add 10K more seats we are set!! Let’s go BRADDAHHOOD!!!
First off, keep the team on campus. The game day environment is 1000% better than it was at Aloha Stadium It’s intimate, you feel more into the game and UH gets to run the full show. Parking is very convenient in my opinion, and to think the athletic program can keep all revenue rather than sharing it with other assets.
The athletic department and Upper campus have a great thing going and need to capitalize off of it. Fans know the school doesn’t have money, but sometimes you need to gamble and take risks. Invest in a smaller stadium (25-30,000), there’s room to do it, get creative. Connect the stadium to Les Murakami, use the grand slam club for a luxury suite, the concessions in the LES can be used for football games as well. Connect at the balcony with a bridge or walk way. Move the field closer to the Ching complex building than consolidate and enclose everything even more. Include a performance center on the Duke Swimming pool side. A lot of possibilities. Tailgating on upper campus is a MUST, split the parking revenue with the upper campus programs. It can be a great situation.
Now to the Team
IMO the coaching staff has heart and they put 110% into their work, but they are young and inexperienced. Those type of things may have an effect on the discipline the team displays during the game. The physical penalties are one thing, late hits, taunting, false starts have all been big penalties that have cost this UH football team a lot of points and even W’s. This team could very well be 3-0 or at the least 2-1 if not for these mental mistakes. Do we have too many young coaches? Do we need to add a little more wisdom and experience to the coaching staff?
Not sure if it was because we were playing UAlbany, but I noticed a lot of new faces on the field. Is it necessary to have guys on the 3 deep playing? Former teams would employ maybe 4-6 wr’s in the rotation, we have 8-9 receivers rotating right now. Does that have a factor in qb-wr chemistry? More PT for Jordan Johnson as a slot as well?
In my opinion there is a lot to improve on. Adjustments to make, mental mistakes to fix. Once the puzzle gets put together, this team has the potential to go BOWLING.
When the new AD comes in he needs to maximize the use of space at Lower Campus to bring in more money.
One suggestion would be to sell space for retail like a mini mall where you can bring more foot traffic at sporting events. You already have a parking structure in place. Restaurants can host the fans before attending the games. Maybe have a sports bar/ entertainment center like a Dave and Busters near the Stan Sheriff Center for both customers and student athletes to have fun. Let those establishment handle the liquor license since it seems so strict selling alcohol there at UH.
Also there needs to be a bigger merchandise store somewhere on Lower Campus. Some good stuff are at the Bookstore across from Dole Street but there should be a bigger store than the small Rainbowtique at the Stan.
Improving the facilities and having a solid nutrition program for all the athletic programs are huge in getting the Athletics program to a higher standard. Bringing in revenue is THE KEY factor in improving the competiveness of the athletic program. I think the new UH Athletics Director needs to look at all avenues to increase its revenue streams.
I just recently seen Fresno State’s long term plan in improving its stadium, building a recently finish football training facility and other improvements in the department. They put out a fundraising web link for anyone to donate to the cause. Boise State and Eastern Washington have also put out projects like that as well.
The lower campus at UH has an enormous amount of potential. To the eye, the buildings, the landscape is just not you would expect from a Division 1 school. We all know that our facilities in comparison to other mid majors (G5) schools don’t match up. Why does UH keep Klum gym standing the way it does? Right now would have been a perfect opportunity to transition the performance facility over to Klum gym, give it a makeover, turn it into an open air two story performance complex and expand the building to include a cafeteria and athletes lounge where they can hang out and/or study.
The current Alexander Waterhouse gym can be transitioned into an extended club access room where people can hang out in before football and basketball games. 50-100 dollar prepay or Pay for bar/buffet, it will take away some of the sting from the lack of pregame tailgating. Provide cheap live music a couple of TV’s to give it a sports bar feel and you have yourself a decent pregame atmosphere.
Turn the H-zone in the Stan Sherriff Center into a sports bar and relocate the H-zone to ground level, because that souvenir booth we see at the UH football games is not the solution and frankly very sad. The University should give our local companies more access to its trademarked logos. Support the community and they’ll support you back. Fitted, HIFI, Defend Hawaii, ALOHA are examples of companies that could probably design better apparel than Adidas. It’s not like Adidas takes care of our university anyway.
Another think UH needs to look at is increasing the Student athletic fee, it’s probably the same from when I was a student at the school. Make it equal to what a Boise State or San Diego State has. You can use these fees for facilities maintenance or even fan experience. For the students, set the student dorms courtyard for a student’s pregame block party. DJ’s, a beer garden for 21+, prize giveaways etc. Make it FUN. You could also include community college students and allow them to have the same privileges as UH Manoa students. If you bump the student fee to 75 per semester that will give the department 6 million annually.
Lastly, based on recent radio talks and that PBS special. The state is not going to build that stadium anytime this decade. 7 years is a long time and that could damage to program to the point of no return. Recruiting will get harder, the fan base will disappear. We have the foundation to start an on campus stadium. Build it in stages and do it the right way. Extend TC Ching another section or two to complete a full sidelines, it already has nice and spacious bathrooms and decent vending stands. You can also replace the press box and expand that whole top area for suites and box seats. Bring the football field closer to the Mauka stand so it allows a bigger Makai sideline grandstand. Keep the corners open on the Mauka side for concessions area. You could keep the current aluminum bleachers and build up a concrete grandstand that includes more bathrooms and concessions and press boxes. Nothing fancy, just a comfortable decent venue for fans to enjoy. The most important thing is single stadium seating not bleachers.
Whoever is in charge of the revenue stream needs to dissect the program and the community and find any and every way to get revenue to improve the university and the fan experience. Include the community and fan base in planning, provide us with a future and we will reciprocate.
Hearing the football team is bonding in the off-season through helping out our community it’s only right to help them back with the resources they need. As the only FBS school in the state it is a shame that they don’t have an updated training facility for themselves. If we don’t invest in helping these student athletes get the things they need to be successful they will not be on a regular basis like a Boise State.
While it’s great local businesses are getting these Braddahs fed at their restaurants. the whole department needs a better service than Sudexo or at least something made fresh at the facilities and always on site.
All these mentioned obviously needs money coming from somewhere. UH should raise the student fees to help pay for the nutritional side of feeding these men and women. The big projects like the football training facility will be harder but hopefully someone like a Clarence TC Ching, Weineburg can donate a good portion of it and UH can match it like they did with the original Ching Complex.
Recently we heard from Governor Green that the University of Hawaii football will be able to play at the new stadium in 2028. There is no surprise there as the finishing line keeps moving farther since no one can collectively agree on how it will be funded after they spend the $400 million on a bare bones stadium with bleacher seats, no roof and little amenities to make it attractive to attend. No one plan will be perfect but just pick one already and start demolishing the stadium.
Now at UH we are hearing after the football moved up their Spring ball to let renovations start early it is currently in a stand still. At least they’ve taken down the Ewa stands which is more than anything taken down at the condemned Aloha Stadium.
I’ve heard from several admins at UH that part of the delay is the track team is still using Ching Complex. As I went to a recent baseball game at Les Murakami Stadium I saw they are starting to work on the infrastructure to put up the Aloha Stadium Jumbotron on top of the Grand Slam Clubhouse. I hope it is tall enough to see from ChIng Stadium otherwise they should have built it close to the Diamond Head grandstands so the whole stadium can see it.
As far as the expansion of seats it seems they are at a delay coming here. It might not be until June till they start working on putting it together. I hope that is enough time till September 1st when Stanford comes to town. Plus we don’t want any accidents especially fatal ones like what happened in the first expansion of Ching Complex.
Can for once something run smoothly when it comes to upgrading a stadium in Hawaii?
Why for the longest time has there not been a mascot for the University of Hawaii? We had Vili the Warrior and I know he was a paid entertainer but we should have a Warrior again as a mascot on the field or court. How about the Hawaiian Studies program come up with a project to make a mascot that fits culturally or have a Hawaiian student be a mascot with a scholarship.
If they can’t or don’t want to portray a Hawaiian Warrior then they should have a mascot that looks like a knight or a Mandalorian. With the new AD coming in he or she should thinking of raising the school spirits and one way is to bring back a mascot.
Aloha!
I think we should have a counsel of UH fans to share ideas to the new marketing director guy(Eric Mathews) Also it could be a conduit for information and transparency between the school and fans. I’ve listened to some of the people on Twitter and Instagram even podcasts about what UH could do to be better with fan experience. Maybe @waynekai @fake808sports @elchibo @laulauhead1 @gobows808 @seaneyman @uhbowzo @nolan79697782 @fyoosha etc. can band together to help find solutions with UH in a Zoom meeting or face to face on campus one a quarter of the year. All of them have great ideas and I hope someone at UH can listen to them or at least have a response back.
Mahalo
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