Whistles Blow Again Over Pasadena Football Ticket Split

Last season’s Super Bowl may be best remembered here not so much for its gridiron action as for fancy footwork by local officials over 1,200 game tickets they were allowed to buy at the face value of $75 each.

“Elitist,” said Nina Cash, an unsuccessful candidate in March for the Board of Directors and a frequent critic of the board.

“Shades of old Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago,” resident R. W. Slocum wrote to a local newspaper.

“Politicians 1,200 to taxpayers zip,” said KCBS-TV commentator Tom Van Amburg.

There will be no Super Bowl in town this season, but officials are facing the same situation with the Rose Bowl game.

Following a tradition dating to the 1930s, the city manager and the seven members of the Board of Directors will each be allowed to buy 100 Rose Bowl tickets at the face value of $38 to resell or give to friends, business associates or political supporters. Another 400 tickets have been distributed among volunteers, city agencies, such as the Police, Planning and Public Works departments, and others.

Another 2,100 tickets for $28-grandstand seats for the Rose Parade will be given to local officials, including 150 for Mayor John Crowley, 120 for each member of the Board of Directors, 100 for City Manager Don McIntyre and two each for volunteers on the various city boards and commissions.

Board members can also receive a free VIP package that gives them four parade tickets, four game tickets and four invitations to a guest luncheon.

The tradition has been perennially attacked as unfair, inappropriate and a potential conflict of interest for local politicians who vote on issues concerning the Rose Bowl.

Although most of the seven board members have expressed concerns about the practice, none is willing to lead an effort to abolish the privilege.

“If anyone wants to pick up the lance, they have my full support,” said Director Rick Cole, who has been one of the loudest critics of the practice. But he added: “I do not relish being set at odds with my colleagues. You have to pick your battles.”

Despite his reluctance, Cole, along with Director William Paparian, has called for a discussion of the issue at the board’s meeting Monday.

While it appears too late to abolish the practice this year, several board members have indicated their willingness to restrict tickets to Pasadena residents, require an accounting of who receives the tickets and insist that buyers not resell the tickets for a profit.

The directors hope that such changes would avoid repeating their embarrassment during the Super Bowl when some tickets sold to board members for $75 were resold without their knowledge for several times the face value.

At the time, tickets were going for as much as $1,500 on the open market.

“I have no more stomach for any more controversy on this issue,” said Cole, who confirmed that some of the resold tickets were originally his. “The whole process should be changed so it doesn’t bring criticism on the city.’

Ideas on replacing the current system include holding a citywide lottery for the tickets, donating the tickets to a charitable organization and using them to reward volunteers and outstanding students and athletes.

None of these ideas has won overwhelming support from the board, but Directors Cole, Paparian, Jess Hughston and Kathryn Nack all support at least reducing the number of tickets for board members to fewer than 10 each.

Favors Restrictions

Director William Thomson said he had no problem with allowing directors to buy 100 tickets, but he favors restricting the tickets to those who live and work in Pasadena and requiring that they do not resell the tickets.

Only Crowley and Director Loretta Thompson-Glickman support leaving the system intact. Thompson-Glickman, who said she sold about one-fourth of her Super Bowl tickets to business acquaintances, did not return several phone calls to her office, but she has previously stated that she has no problem with the way tickets are handled.

Lottery Planned

As for the coming Rose Bowl, Cole said he plans to hold a lottery among residents in his district for his 100 tickets.

Paparian and Thomson say they intend to sell their tickets to residents in their districts on a first-come, first-served basis.

The other directors plan to sell their tickets to friends, relatives, business acquaintances, political supporters and volunteers.

The tradition of selling 100 tickets each to local officials began at least five decades ago, according to Lathrop K. Leishman, whose involvement with the Rose Bowl dates to the first game in 1922.

Leishman said the intent was not to allow more residents to attend or to reward volunteers, but to increase ticket sales at a time when the bowl was rarely sold out.

“It was a case of generating some interest,” he said. “If I were a city director, I wouldn’t take any tickets. I don’t buy any except for my family, and that’s it.”

Under the current system, officials pay the city for their tickets. They can keep some tickets and sell the remainder at face value to friends, relatives, political supporters or business associates.

The money paid by the directors goes to the Finance Department, which writes one check for all 1,200 tickets to the Tournament of Roses Assn., said Barbara Barrett, the city administrator in charge of the Rose Bowl.

There is no policy governing the distribution of the tickets.

Roughly 200 go to city department heads, who usually distribute them to employees through a lottery. There is also no policy governing this distribution.

No Refusals

Although no board member is required to buy tickets, Barrett said, “no one has ever refused them.”

Of the 100,932 tickets to the game, 53,718 go to the Pac-10, 22,293 to the Big 10, 21,421 to the Tournament of Roses Assn., and 3,500 are sold to the public through a lottery, said Tournament of Roses Assn. spokesman Bill Flinn.

Out of the association’s allotment, 958 tickets go to the media, with the biggest buyers being NBC, which broadcasts the game, with 300 tickets and the Pasadena Star-News with 100, Flinn said.

What Other Bowls Do

Of the four major college bowl games in the country, the Rose Bowl and the Orange Bowl in Miami are the only two that provide large numbers of tickets to city officials.

The Orange Bowl Committee in Miami allocates only 12 tickets for officials, including members of the City Council and the Dade County (Fla.) Board of Supervisors, but allows them to buy as many tickets as they want because of the difficulty in selling out the game.

“Three out of the last five games haven’t sold out,” said Steve Hatchell, executive director of the Orange Bowl Committee. “We want people to sell the Orange Bowl for us.”

Unlike the Orange Bowl, the Rose Bowl sells out every year, and a ticket becomes a precious commodity that can sell for as much as $300 on the open market.

Organizers of the two other major bowls--the Cotton Bowl and the Sugar Bowl--say they limit local officials to purchasing about 10 tickets each at face value.

‘Are You Kidding?’

“A hundred tickets?” asked Mickey Holmes, executive director of the Sugar Bowl. “Are you kidding?”

The ticket issue has been a sticky one for the board. Before the March election, it became a campaign issue symbolizing what some claimed was the board’s club-like and petty nature.

Even several board members agree that the practice unfairly gives them a privilege that most residents do not have.

“I’ve always viewed it as a kind of inequity,” said Hughston. “I get something because of my position that others do not get.”

Cole added: “It shouldn’t be a personal privilege, but a community privilege.”

Unsavory Perception

The practice has also created an unsavory perception that board members are buying influence, paying off political favors or being paid off by the Tournament of Roses Assn. for political favors, Paparian said.

“The appearance of impropriety can be just as bad as any actual impropriety,” he said. “Some can see it as a means of showing favoritism and potentially making money.”

While there is no monetary gain for board members, Paparian said there could be a conflict of interest since the board often votes on issues concerning the Rose Bowl or the Tournament of Roses Assn.

Board members have also complained that the practice is a time-consuming annoyance that can be more trouble than it is worth.

“It’s a nuisance,” said Nack, adding that collecting money and trying to avoid offending anyone by giving them bad seats is a major headache. “I don’t have any problem in cutting down the number of tickets, and I think everyone would be glad we did it.”

But despite the complaints, some board members say there are benefits.

Nack said the tickets allow more residents to attend a major hometown event, although there is no written requirement that the tickets go to residents.

Reward for Volunteers

Nack added that the tickets let the directors reward volunteers who work on various boards and commissions.

Crowley agreed that the tickets allow directors to show appreciation to those who have worked hard for the city, and he saw no reason to change a long-standing practice.

After January’s Super Bowl, a majority of the board supported a change but took no action to avoid doing something “off the top of our heads,” said then-Director Jo Heckman.

Resolution Urged

But Cole said buying Rose Bowl tickets raised the same questions, and he urged the board to resolve the issue.

Despite his pushing, the issue was tabled for future discussion--and remained tabled until this week.

But more cynical watchers of city politics say the board will eventually fall victim to the political inertia that has protected the tradition for five decades.

“They’re just plain, old, out-and-out wimps,” said Cash, who made the Super Bowl tickets an issue in her unsuccessful campaign for a seat on the board. “Until there is another uproar, things will go on the same way.”