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US Soccer COULD have a tropical home at the new Aloha Stadium in Hawaii as the state’s governor says the facility set to open in 2026 may target national team matches
The US national teams may soon have another stadium to (sometimes) call home, as a new Aloha Stadium in Hawaii aspires to host soccer games, according to the state’s governor.
A new version of the stadium, which previously hosted the University of Hawaii football games and the NFL Pro Bowl, is scheduled to open in 2026. according to Front Office Sports.
And Gov. Josh Green said earlier this week that the stadium could be used by children and high school students, and also for concerts, international rugby and American soccer, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser. reported.
The original Aloha Stadium was home to the Hawaiian soccer team from 1975 until 2020, when the Rainbow Warriors moved to Ching Field in anticipation of construction.
They will return to the new Aloha Stadium when it is complete.
US soccer could play games in a new Aloha Stadium in a few years
The stadium project could include housing and an entertainment district as well.
Stadium is slated to cost ‘less than $500 million,’ according to Gov. Josh Green
Meanwhile, neither the US men’s nor women’s national soccer teams currently have a permanent home stadium.
The men played their last two games in Los Angeles, while the women recently played in Orlando, Nashville and Frisco, Texas in the SheBelieves Cup.
Governor Green told reporters this week that the project was estimated to cost “less than $500 million.”
That’s despite the fact that the stadium will reportedly shrink from 50,000 to around 35,000.
The project could also include housing and an entertainment district, though those parts are currently up in the air according to Star-Advertiser.
The original Aloha Stadium was home to the Hawaiian soccer team from 1975 to 2020
The US men’s team has played in absolutely freezing temperatures before.
Nonetheless, the new Aloha Stadium would be an attractive destination for both US soccer players and their opponents, and a welcome change from some previous US national team venues.
Last year, the men’s team played Honduras in St. Paul, Minnesota in five degrees Fahrenheit.
Honduran starters Luis López and Romell Quioto were pulled at halftime, reportedly due to hypothermia, and their coach Hernán ‘Bolillo’ Gómez was not happy about the United States scheduling a game there in February.
‘It is difficult, very complicated. Football is not to suffer like this,’ he said.