HONOLULU — The University of Hawaii executed a dry run for on-campus tailgating in the final game of the 2024 season.
The school feels it’s ready for the full experience in 2025.
UH announced Wednesday that all seven contests at the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex for the fall season will include an Upper Campus pregame tailgating component in Zone 13 along Correa Road — a series of parking lots stretching from Kennedy Theatre to Campus Center.
Season tailgating passes will go for $250 per vehicle. UH has 270 stalls to allot; it still forbids tailgating in the Lower Campus parking structure also known as Zone 20.
“We’ve been working on ways to provide a fun, safe, and exciting environment for football fans for the last two years, and one of our biggest pieces has been to add tailgating,” Eric Mathews, UH director of marketing and fan experience, told Spectrum News in a message. “With the help of several departments across our university we’ve developed a way to make it happen. The end of the 2024 season we were able to roll it out on an experimental basis so we could get to this point. We’re here now because of the hard work, communication, and effort to make it happen. We’re all excited and August 23rd can’t get here fast enough so we can enjoy a full season of tailgating, fun, and Rainbow Warrior football!”
UH will allow gas grills (tanks of five pounds to 25 pounds) and televisions in the area, which will open four hours before kickoff and close 30 minutes before kickoff. The walk to the Ching Complex takes between five and 10 minutes.
Security concerns were believed to be part of the holdup for on-campus tailgating to this point; the UH football team began playing on campus in the 2021 season and until the 2024 season finale against New Mexico, fans were restricted to pregame festivities at Ching Complex and adjacent Les Murakami Stadium.
The school said it will “enforce the same rules as your favorite beach spot and the previously stated rules at Aloha Stadium with no alcoholic beverage consumption in the parking lot.”
There will be a beer garden in the “Pa‘ina on the Path” from Campus Center to Dole Street.
The 2025 home dates are: Stanford, Aug. 23; Sam Houston, Sept. 6; Portland State, Sept. 13; Fresno State, Sept. 20; Utah State, Oct. 11; San Diego State, Nov. 8; and Wyoming, Nov. 29.
H-Club members will have the first chance to purchase tailgating passes. The highest levels of membership are already cleared to order them, while the lowest tier opens May 2.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.
