Rose Bowl's new plan
City looks past failed NFL bid
By Kenneth Todd Ruiz Staff Writer


PASADENA - Last year, the city left the NFL at the negotiating table. On Election Day, voters burned the table.

Although the Rose Bowl isn't going to immediately collapse into the earth, the same questions about its viability exist today that the NFL seemed to answer five years ago.

"It's critical that whatever side of the NFL you were on, that you now are on the side of the Rose Bowl," said stadium General Manager Darryl Dunn on Friday.

As workers readied the field for UCLA's Saturday game after the impact of the high school Turkey Tussle this week, Dunn stood in the shadow of the press box, built a decade ago with bond money, Super Sunday exhilaration and the promises of a different kind of football.

But futbol ended with the Galaxy's departure from the stadium's orbit and the NFL - if its overtures were ever in earnest - fumbled its chance to bring professional football to Pasadena.

With no Deus-ex-Goodell on the way to wallpaper the bowl with cash, Pasadena still has a stadium that took in $1.5million less than its expenses last year.

That difference is made up in income from greens fees at the surrounding Brookside Golf Course, with little or no money going from the city's General Fund to support the bowl. The entrepreneurial Rose Bowl Operating Company, a city body, oversees both the course and the stadium.

With the monthly swap meet, the Tournament of Roses and UCLA football as its main tenants, revenue is unlikely to increase, but expenses are guaranteed to go up for the aging facility.

Those invested politically and financially in opposing the NFL Initiative - rejected by 72 percent of voters - have long touted "Plan B" - a series of different ways to make money at the bowl absent pro football. A strategic development plan also known as Plan B is now being developed by the Rose Bowl Operating Company.

"Plan B stopped being `Plan B' a long time ago," said Councilman Victor Gordo in an interview before Tuesday's election.

Pieces of that plan have been discussed at recent meetings of the Rose Bowl Operating Company, which Dunn said expects to have cost estimates for sometime in December.

The city hopes some parts of that plan will generate revenue, including possibly selling naming rights and building more premium seating.

But even if El Pollo Loco or Parsons were to pay to attach their name to the field, a gate or end zone, the stadium will be competing in a diminished market of events and tenants.

Concerts have dried up and although there is still hope for soccer, international soccer matches are more often played at the Los Angeles Coliseum and are unlikely to support the stadium anytime soon.

Improving the fan experience by working on safety, access and amenities will be essential to drawing the business needed to sustain the bowl, Dunn said.

To that end, HOK Architecture is developing proposals for improved seating, new entrances along the rim of the bowl and an expanded, ground-level concourse around the perimeter.

Part of Pasadena's problem is it is arguably the smallest of cities to support a publicly owned stadium, compared to those in Los Angeles, Dallas or Miami. Most other college stadiums have already been modernized and renovated, with costs ranging from $100 million to $200 million.

Past improvements at the Rose Bowl have required public support through bond measures, which are funding the new locker rooms and media center currently under construction.

Mayor Bill Bogaard, a major voice of opposition to the NFL initiative, said he understood some improvements were necessary.

"To have a more successful venue for the Tournament of Roses and UCLA and others, we need to make some changes and improvements," he said.

Bogaard said he would take "the taxpayers' viewpoint" as the council considered what - and how - it would fund in the way of improvements.

Read more at the Pasadena Star News

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