Scott Chan's first month on the job as manager of Aloha Stadium must have been a good one.

The stadium authority voted him a $4,071 raise yesterday.

For all the tongue-in-cheek comments about "gee, do we want to table it and think about it," the authority deliberated not at all in swiftly passing the raise by a 9-0 vote, hiking Chan's annual salary to $85,534 beginning July 1.

Of course, it wasn't just authority largess in action. As authority member Marcia Klompus noted, the group expects big things from its non-voting hire, requiring Chan to think out of the rusting box and take initiative.

Sort of like how he did recently when a group of NFL officials toured the stadium on an annual Pro Bowl preparation tour. Chan noted how he'd heard the NFL might be willing to move its annual draft and wondered if they'd consider Hawai'i. He asked enough questions to at least open some very preliminary dialogue.

Now, landing the NFL Draft draft on these shores is as much as a Hail Mary as anything Chan probably authored in the waning seconds of a game as a record-setting quarterback at Kaiser High and Willamette University. Even getting the draft out of the the NFL's New York backyard is a long shot for a city on the continent. A 4,968-mile one to be sure, when your zip code is 96701.

And even if by some miracle it did come here it would probably have to be at the Convention Center or Stan Sheriff Center, not Chan's place of employment in Halawa.

But it's an encouraging sign of both forward thinking and gumption that Chan would make the inquiries. That can't be lost on the NFL folks or others. And, isn't that what you want in the new point man for the state's largest sporting edifice?

With 50,000 seats and 104 acres to utilize, you want somebody who is at least willing to look beyond convention, ask questions and suggest possibilities. Someone not just content to book the same fairs and football games but to try to bring events and fans together.

That is presumably a lot of what the authority saw in Chan, 48, the former high school and college scholar-athlete, when it gave him the keys to the place May 24. That, of course, plus the fact that at the previous salary, veteran operators of similar facilities elsewhere weren't exactly lining up to take on the challenge.

"(My husband) Lenny and I were fortunate enough to work with Scott for a lot of years when he first began (at Aloha Stadium) and then moved up the chain and have always admired his conscientiousness and can-do attitude," said Klompus, whose partnership was involved with the Aloha, O'ahu and Hula Bowls in the 1980s and '90s.

"We've always found him even-handed with events people, which is important, and a characteristic I feel will work very well for the new head of Aloha Stadium as he moves forward."

At his first meeting since sitting in the manager's chair on a full-time basis, Chan was up front and in charge in dealing with the appointed authority and the issue before it.

As Aloha Stadium takes the turn toward age 35 with growing maintenance costs and an uncertain future, you like to think the place has the right person in charge. The hope and, indeed, the authority's up-the-ante betting is that it does.

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