Here's something for beer-loving University of Hawai'i fans to drink to — responsibly, of course — this football season:

The possibility of a second chance to stave off an alcohol ban at Aloha Stadium.

Thanks to yesterday's deferring of a vote on prohibition, pending further research, it could now be the tail end of the season — or beyond — before the Aloha Stadium Authority issues its "last call" on alcohol at the state's largest sporting venue.

Instead of the mid-October 2005 cutoff state officials had sought, it could be the 2006 opener before the taps run dry.

Time enough, perhaps, to clean up much of the boorish behavior that prompted UH Interim President David McClain and Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona yesterday to passionately implore the authority to impose a ban.

Who knows, maybe even time for the responsible majority to reclaim the place from the miscreant few.

Well, it is just before the start of the college football season, a point when even somebody playing the No. 1 team in the land can hope for a miracle. So, why not an off-the-field upset of major proportions, too?

Turning back a growing problem years in the making in a matter of a few months might be too much to ask but the authority opened the door, albeit ever so slightly, to the possibility of not imposing a ban as it explores its options.

"A trial period," authority member Marvin Fong termed it in arguing for an exhausting of alternatives before implementing a ban.

"It is up to the fans to prove this is an isolated problem and that it is really something that can be corrected with an attitude change," said Kevin Chong Kee, authority chairman, who had come to yesterday's meeting prepared to vote for ending alcohol in both the parking lot and stadium.

But it would be a mistake to take yesterday's postponement as tacit approval of anything goes permissiveness. Or, push the open-mindedness and parliamentary confusion of the authority too far.

Especially when Aloha Stadium is one of the dwindling holdouts in the trend to going dry in college football. "I think that the fans should realize that this is an issue the board is serious about," Chong Kee said.

And, so is Aiona who vowed to return to the authority pushing the ban, "because it is the right thing to do for our entire state."

"If fans continue to misbehave it will be easier for the board to take action," said Marcia Klompus, authority member. "Obviously everybody agrees we have a problem."

In the meantime, "the ball is in their (the fans') hands now," Chong Kee said. "They are on offense and they have to show us what they can do."

The season starts Sept. 3 when it won't be just the teams on the field that have something to prove.

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