There have been some memorable end runs at Aloha Stadium — Marshall Faulk's come to mind — but the one the University of Hawai'i is attempting to pull off could be the most remarkable in the facility's 31 years.

What is before the Aloha Stadium Authority this year, and what UH interim President David McClain and authority chairman Kevin Chong Kee are scheduled to have on the table for discussion today, have become curiously intertwined.

The authority last year finally agreed to reassess the issue of future UH rental payments, setting into motion a measure that would allow it to reduce, or even do away with, what will be charged for the 2006 season.

But UH seems to have taken it a significant step further. The Warriors, by holding on to the $341,000 Aloha Stadium charges it still owes from 2005 for rent and operating expenses, have effectively said, "we'll keep the check from this past season just in case you want to make the whole thing retroactive."

Never mind that none of the voting authority members did. The rule change the authority has asked Gov. Lingle for says nothing about going retroactive. Nor was that part of the authority's debate. Forget, also, that there has been a long-existing contract that calls for UH to pay 7.5 percent of gross ticket sales or $10,000 per date, which ever is greater.

Still, you have to admire UH's audacity, especially when the school says it has the money budgeted to make the payment. Unless, perhaps, you are Aloha Stadium, which claimed it laid off more than 40 part-time workers when UH was late with the 2004 check. Now UH is holding on to the $341,000, moolah the stadium says it needs to help set up for the April 8 U2 concert.

Clearly, it doesn't make sense for one state agency to be charging another rent. Especially when UH, for whom the stadium was built, is the tenant that brings the most business.

As it stands now, UH pays both rent and operating expenses. High schools pay operating expenses only and the Pro Bowl nothing. That is something the authority has earnestly set about changing and needs to see through before the 2006 season kicks off, as it so far seems willing to do.

In the meantime, Aloha Stadium has its own books to balance based upon what it has been promised. UH can show its good faith by paying the state what it is already contractually obligated to fork over.

It probably wouldn't be a good idea for fans to hold on to their rent payments while asking landlords for the "UH deal."

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.