When Aloha Stadium closed four years ago, students and families felt Hawai’i’s college football spirit was lost.
This season, tailgating has finally made its long-awaited return to the University of Hawai’i, and fans couldn’t be more excited.
“In a lot of ways, this does not feel like college football. It just hasn’t,” said Eric Mathews, director of Marketing and Fan Experience for UH Athletics. “You add this element into it, it’s another thing to add to make it feel like college football. And if you’ve been at Aloha, if you’ve been anywhere else on the mainland, tailgating is an integral part. It’s what puts you in that feeling.”
Mathews has been behind the scenes planning UHʻs first official tailgate, with conversations and meetings dating back almost a year. He explained there is a lot more to organizing a fan experience like this than simply pointing people in the direction of an empty campus parking lot.
“There’s a lot of pieces to this puzzle. A lot of people don’t realize everything from the cost of security, to cost of porta potties, to health situations and hazards. Like, you gotta go through all this different stuff,” Mathews said.
From permits to funding, to staffing and other various regulations, Mathews believes the 2024 UH Football senior night game was the right time to bring the tradition back to fans and hopefully see it through to future seasons.
“Tailgate is a big part of University of Hawai’i football culture. So I just want to realize that it’s more than just a game. It’s more about tradition, more about culture. It’s more about family,” said long-time UH fan Shane Magno.
Magno has been a fan of UH Football since he was a young boy in the ’70s. He said friends and family have been waiting for tailgating to return since the pandemic. This year, theyʻre extra thankful that the tradition returned to campus over the Thanksgiving holiday.
“I always went to the games at Aloha Stadium, always tailgating with my family and friends, and finally getting getting to enjoy it, you know, now I’m an adult, yeah, it’s really fun,” said UH student Brandon Gu.
Despite the return of tailgating being a success this year, Mathews says there are still many more elements to be added and improvements to be made.
With this year’s debut as their starting point, Mathews said he and campus administrators will be looking into fan feedback, particularly from students, and hope to build a bridge of communication that can help the experience flourish in the future. For now, theyʻre hoping for a smooth start to the newly-revived tradition.
