FIGURING it's about time -- it has been four years since Stan Sheriff has died -- Sen. Mike McCartney has sponsored a senate concurrent resolution urging the school's board of regents to name the Special Events Arena after the late University of Hawaii athletic director. It’s time to put
Sheriff’s name on arenaA senate hearing on the resolution (SCR 259) was held last night. Maybe a little political prodding will finally get the long overdue task done.
After all, it was Sheriff who was the most instrumental in getting the 10,225-seat on-campus arena built. More important, at a time when some were proposing a 4,000-seat gymnasium, Sheriff stood by his guns and said -- 10,000, no fewer. He actually wanted one around 16,000, but realized that the squabbling over it would only result in further delays.
Sheriff championed the cause of the on-campus arena and it paid off dividends for the Rainbows' athletic program, especially in basketball and volleyball.
Maybe the regents might feel insulted at being prodded in such a way. But at least they'll know that if the resolution passes, the legislature has gone on record in support of naming the arena after Sheriff.
I wouldn't be surprised if the main reason why "Da SEA" hasn't been named as yet isn't because of the ruling that a university facility can be named only after a five-year waiting period following a person's death. Eugene Imai, UH's senior vice president of administration, testified in opposition to the resolution, citing the delay because of the five-year ruling. Which, of course, was fudged in the case of the Richardson Law School with a specifically provided law.
INSTEAD, in these fiscally difficult times, UH could be waiting for a sugar daddy to donate really big bucks -- say, several million -- in order to name the arena after him. Get real.
There's precedent, of course.
This year's NCAA Final Four will be held in Indianapolis, where only three years ago the arena was known as the Hoosier Dome. Now, it's known as the RCA Dome, and I don't have to tell you why. For a price, Indianans were willing to forsake Hoosier pride for more than $1 million a year.
Airline carriers are big into sponsoring basketball playing arenas. There's the America West Arena in Phoenix, the U.S. Air Arena in Washington, D.C., Chicago's United Center and Delta Center in Salt Lake City where the Jazz, a nickname misnomer if there ever was one, play. Too bad Aloha Airlines doesn't have that kind of money to sponsor UH's arena. The Aloha Arena wouldn't be too bad a name.
Still, nothing's more appropriate than the Stan Sheriff Arena. It's a justly deserved name for the facility, which was a dream that came true for someone who literally gave his life for University of Hawaii athletics.
IT'S interesting that McCartney is the one who introduced the resolution.
"We were at odds. I was the guy who opposed the arena because I thought we couldn't afford it," McCartney said.
"He had a dream and I now see what he had in mind. Every time I go there, I can only think of Stan Sheriff, how he fought passionately for the arena and how committed he was. There's no other person you think of when you go into arena. He deserves the honor."
And, according to McCartney, Sheriff would be the first to agree to name it after a wealthy donor if it would help UH athletics.
Maybe the resolution can have a little proviso: if or when someone or a corporation shows up with the money, the arena's name can be changed and then maybe the court itself be named for Sheriff.
In either case, the UH regents have no excuse next year when the five years are up -- ruling or no ruling.