Aerosmith locks down lower campus

Cooke Field at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa was filled with about 6,000 people on Saturday eating shrimp and chicken kabobs, drinking beer or wine and taking shelter from some brief Mānoa showers under the stylish tents. Because most of the lower campus was rented out for the Toyota convention, students were restricted from all points of access over the weekend.

Toyota rented out the athletic complex to celebrate its 50th year of business in the U.S. The private party was broken into three parts: a business meeting in the Stan Sheriff Center, a reception on Cooke Field and a private Aerosmith concert in Les Murakami Stadium.

"One of the reasons we're back in Hawai‘i is because our first dealer meeting was here in 1957," said Mike Michels, corporate manager of external communications for Toyota. "So there's a kind of nostalgia there."

The celebration cost the company $500,000 for use of the university grounds, and much more for food, personnel and entertainment. Gregg Takayama, the UH director of communications, has said the money will be used to benefit the university as a whole, but stated that the athletic department has not directly specified what the money will go toward.

Toyota employees from as far away as New York flew in to be a part of the program. They wandered around the field, talking story and admiring some of the "tricked-out" Toyota Scions bought and modified by locals.

Blane Tanabe of Hawai‘i Kai showed off his shiny black 2006 Scion xA on Cooke Field. He spent more than $35,000 on the modifications and lost a girlfriend in the process, but was proud of his Scion. "It's a real honor to be here," he said with a big smile on his face. "All I've been getting is compliment after compliment about my car."

When asked about the cost of the entire celebration, Michels was hesitant to answer. "We don't usually disclose that kind of information," he said. "Mainly so our competitors don't know; but I will say it cost somewhere in the millions."

In terms of contributions to the island and giving back to the community, Michels said the 6,000 people pumping money into the local economy is something everyone should be excited about.

"The agenda has a lot of free time," Michels said. "So (Toyota employees) were going out to restaurants, shopping, spending money. I'm sure everybody didn't mind that."

A local company getting a piece of the action at the event was Indigo Restaurant, which catered for the reception in between the business meeting and the concert.

Inconvenience for students

Contrary to the buzz of excitement exhibited by the Toyota employees, some members of the UH student body were upset with the lower campus closures and changes made to the campus for Toyota.

From 1 to 11 p.m. on Saturday, students were not allowed to enter lower campus via Lower Campus Road, Varsity Place Gate or Kalele Road. They were also restricted from parking in the lower campus parking structure (zone 20) as well as the music building and law school parking lots. In addition, all pedestrian access points on lower campus were closed off.

Toyota also paid a private company to remove all speed bumps on the UH lower campus to better accommodate for the 100 buses transporting the Toyota employees.

"I think it's ridiculous that they paid the school to take out the speed bumps," said senior Heather Johnson, who resides in the Noelani apartments. "It's even worse that the school did it."

Johnson also felt like the school had no right to close the dorm access road. "It's like we're trapped," she said.

Michels was apologetic to the student cause, but said they tried everything they could to work with administration to get the word out about the event and the closures. "We were trying to minimize inconvenience when we were planning this out. We were told this would be a good weekend for it because there were no sporting events going on," he said.

He also mentioned it was not the company's intent to tie up the campus, but they were paying to use the property and hoped it would help the university. "We acknowledge that we are guests on campus, and we hope the fee we paid will benefit the student body."

The concert

The blaring guitars and shrill vocals of Aerosmith and opener Stevie Nicks were cause for a lot of the concertgoers to be on the baseball field, right next to the stage.

Aerosmith's lead singer, Steven Tyler, strutted up and down the runway that led out from the center of the stage, his enormous mouth screaming into a purple microphone on a stand laced with handkerchiefs and other fabrics. At one point, Tyler grabbed cameras from fans, took pictures of himself with the crowd behind him and handed them back to the owners.

Meanwhile, flashes from cameras could be seen from the Wainani apartments behind the stadium, where students had to make due with trying to listen to the concert from afar.

Johnson felt it was unfair that no one else on campus was invited to the festivities since they were inconveniencing those who needed to get down to lower campus. "I wish I could have gone, or at least been in Gateway so I could watch."

Bob Carter, group vice president and general manager of the Toyota Division, cited capacity levels and wanting to keep the event as friendly to Toyota employees as possible as reasons for the privacy. "We have over 6,000 people here," Carter said. "And we just wanted to make sure that we're the most accommodating to our dealers since this is such a large event for us."

Carter said he was very grateful to use the facilities. "We are celebrating our 50th anniversary and I knew we just had to come back to Hawai‘i," he said. "We really appreciate the hospitality of the university."

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