Economy casts shadow over Rose Parade but doesn’t squelch festive spirit

When the 120th Rose Parade rolls onto Colorado Boulevard this morning, the really valuable seating will be the free spots on the sidewalk, as the venerable parade and bowl game take a recessionary hit -- albeit one that New Year’s revelers are taking with the day’s trademark optimism.

The spectacle of flower-festooned floats, marching bands and, of course, the daintily waving Rose Queen and her court is expected to draw tens of thousands of spectators and countless television viewers. It’s one of the last American mega-parades and still manages to evoke a sense of old-fashioned Americana.

Yet tough financial times have called for an equal dose of old-fashioned American ingenuity.

Consider the lament of the La Canada Flintridge float decoration chairwoman, grappling with the cost of onion seed, which skyrocketed from $5 a pound to nearly $25 a pound in 2008. Parade rules demand that only natural plant materials adorn the floats. And onion seed, one of the few things in nature that is truly black, was needed for the float’s centerpiece robots.

“I did more price shopping than we have ever done before,” said Danelle Jacobs of the La Canada Flintridge Tournament of Roses Assn. Even after placing her $35,000 order, she worried that fuel prices would hike costs.

“To us, especially as a self-built, all-volunteer float, that really affects how many cymbidiums I can buy.” Especially when they are $22 a stem -- up from $18 last year.

And then there’s the struggling graduate student who serves on a Pasadena city commission. He decided to sell his city-issued grandstand seats to make ends meet this month.

The young man, who asked not to be named because he’s not sure he was allowed to sell the tickets, said that in years past he has happily watched the parade from reserved seats.

“But this year, I just can’t,” he said. Instead, he posted his tickets for sale on Craigslist.com. “The economy is too bad. The cost of living is so high. . . . There’s no choice.”

Many trying to sell secondary market tickets for the Rose Bowl online reported sluggish sales, with some advertising below-face-value prices.

Bonnie VanArsdale of Newbury Park was stuck with extra parade tickets after friends from Texas canceled their trip. She attempted to sell two of the tickets on Craigslist.com, but got no takers, so instead she gave them to her grandson, 8, and grandniece, 10.

The good news from float builders and sponsors -- whose main reason for building floats is to promote good news about themselves -- is that many of their flowered creations were planned a year ago and paid for before the financial world collapsed.

The 46 floats in the Rose Parade range from relatively modest $50,000 entries sponsored by local community groups and cities to nearly half-million-dollar, over-the-top floral contraptions with animated appendages. Builders of the more extravagant entries say they haven’t been affected by changing prices or the bad economy.

Tim Estes of Fiesta Parade Floats, which built a dozen floats for today’s parade, said the economy has not dampened his clients’ enthusiasm for the parade. “A number of them are eager to get going again,” he said.

But smaller organizations and cities have felt the pinch, scrambling to trim costs or fill budget gaps.

In West Covina, businesses that had pledged financial support to the city’s Rose Float Foundation, including several auto dealers, had to scale back donations. A fundraiser to “sponsor a rose”-- which typically brings in a few thousand dollars -- garnered only a few hundred in 2008. And residents who could have donated a few extra dollars each month to the group through their trash bills largely opted out.

That left the foundation in a bind, said executive vice president Chris Freeland. Perhaps the sale of “rose float potpourri” from flowers salvaged from the float after New Year’s Day will help.

“We’re grasping at whatever,” Freeland said.

Others are assessing whether they can afford to sponsor an entry in 2010.

Glendale’s $95,000 entry, which features a replica of the city’s historic Alex Theatre decorated in yellow strawflower and white rice, was funded partially by city redevelopment money. But the city is now facing a nearly $21-million shortfall, said Assistant City Manager Bob McFall.

“The float, while an important promotional opportunity for the city . . . would probably be one of the items that the City Council would consider cutting,” he said.

Jacobs of La Canada said she also worries whether community members, many of them retirees, will continue to support the organization. “Several people have said to me, ‘We don’t know if we can continue to be members.’ . . . It’s the first year I’ve heard that comment.”

Tournament of Roses Chief of Operations Bill Flinn said the current economic crisis “in some respects is larger than we are.”

But he maintained his optimism.

“The Tournament of Roses has lived through almost every type of up and down: world wars, depressions,” he said. “There’s something a parade can bring even in difficult times. People like to get away from their thoughts for a while.”

At noon Wednesday, paradegoers lined Orange Grove and Colorado boulevards with mattresses, sleeping bags and folding chairs, jockeying into prime parade-viewing position.

By 8 p.m., hundreds of people bundled in beanies and scarves were camped along Colorado Boulevard with coolers, makeshift barbecue grills and sleeping bags.

Amid a backdrop of sparkling Christmas lights, they pumped rap music from portable stereos, snacked on Doritos and dodged vendors hawking towering stacks of powder-blue cotton candy.

For 6-year-old Marly Lara, it was a new experience.

“I’m hungry,” she said, adjusting her Santa hat and climbing onto an air mattress covered with a Hello Kitty comforter.

Marly and her mother, Camille Ruiz, 32, set up camp at 3 p.m. and passed the time by shopping, playing Uno and watching “Wall-E” on their laptop.

“No one wants to be out in the cold, but we sacrifice being inside to watch the parade,” said Ruiz, a teacher. “It’s going to be a long night.”

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cara.dimassa@latimes.com

jessica.garrison@latimes.com

Raja Abdulrahim contributed to this report.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

The lineup for the 120th Rose Parade

1. Marine Corps Mounted Color Guard

2. American Honda

3. Prairie View A & M University Band

4. Trader Joe’s

5. Sons and Daughters of the Reel West

6. La Canada Flintridge Tournament of Roses Assn.

7. Marine Corps West Coast Composite Band

8. RFD-TV

9. All American Cowgirl Chicks

10. Rain Bird Corp.

11. Science Hill High School Band

12. City of Mission Viejo

13. Pasadena City College Herald Trumpets

14. Macy’s (Queen’s Float)

15. Pasadena City College Honor Band

16. Valley Hunt Club Hitch & Riders

17. Vera Bradley

18. Rotary International

19. Hawaii All-State Marching Band

20. Dunkin Acres Miniature Donkey Six Hitch

21. Lions Clubs International

22. USC

23. USC Band

24. Farmers Insurance Group

25. Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament

26. City of Cerritos

27. Royal British Legion Youth Band

28. President, Tournament of Roses

29. City of Alhambra

30. Alhambra Unified School District Band

31. Martinez Family

32. Sierra Madre Rose Float Assn.

33. New Mexico

34. Hollywood Paso Finos

35. City of Duarte / City of Hope

36. The Salvation Army Tournament of Roses Band

37. Lutheran Laymen’s League

38. Grand marshal

39. City of Anaheim

40. Natural Balance Pet Foods

41. Long Beach Mounted Police

42. City of Long Beach

43. Ballou Senior High School Band

44. National Assn. of Realtors

45. Downey Rose Float Assn.

46. Victorian Roses Ladies Riding Society

47. Kiwanis International

48. Golden Valley High School Band

49. Mayor of Pasadena

50. Kaiser Permanente

51. Penn State

52. Penn State Band

53. Wells Fargo

54. City of Torrance

55. West Covina Rose Float Foundation

56. Homewood Patriot Band

57. Cal Poly Universities

58. NAMM, The International Music Products Assn.

59. Honor Band of America

60. Cowgirls Historical Foundation

61. City of Roseville

62. McQueen High School Band

63. FTD

64. Aguilas Doradas Marching Band

65. Broken Horn Ropers

66. City of Huntington Beach

67. Liberty High School Band

68. New Buffalo Soldiers

69. Donate Life

70. City of St. Louis

71. Broken Arrow High School Band

72. China Airlines

73. Spirit of the West Riders

74. Burbank Tournament of Roses Assn.

75. Odd Fellows and Rebekahs

76. Blue Springs High School Band

77. Jack in the Box

78. California State Firefighters’ Assn.

79. Bayer Advanced

80. Anchorage Convention and Visitors Bureau

81. Scripps Miramar Saddlebreds

82. City of Glendale

83. L.A. Unified School District Honor Band

84. City of Los Angeles

85. Ronald McDonald House Charities of Southern California

86. Riverside Community College Marching Tiger Band

87. Western Asset

88. The Shire Riders

89. City of South Pasadena

Post-parade float viewing:

Floats will be on display for public viewing along Sierra Madre Boulevard between Paloma Street and Sierra Madre Villa Avenue, and along Washington Boulevard between Sierra Madre Boulevard and Woodlyn Road.

Hours are Thursday from 1 to 5 p.m. and on Friday and Saturday from 7 to 9 a.m. for the disabled and senior citizens, and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. for everyone.

For more on the Rose Parade: See www.latimes.com/roseparade

Sources: Tournament of Roses, Pasadena Convention & Visitors Bureau, Pasadena Department of Public Works