After Time in San Francisco, Toma Returns to Rose Bowl

Athletic-field specialist George Toma of Kansas City and his crew needed only a week to stabilize Candlestick Park’s football field for Sunday’s NFC championship game in rainy San Francisco, so getting the Rose Bowl ready for the Super Bowl on Jan. 31 doesn’t figure to be a problem.

Southern California has been experiencing winter rain for much of the last three weeks, but Toma has been working on the Rose Bowl field since Dec. 28.

“We’ve been working hard on the field since the last game was played with the Rose Bowl,” said Jim Steeg, the Super Bowl’s executive for special events. “Everyone has said that it is in pretty good shape.”

Toma and his crew resodded the Pasadena field the morning after the Rose Bowl game New Year’s Day. They replaced the turf in the middle of the field, the end zones and along the sidelines.

And for much of the time since then, the field has been covered.

“We always come prepared,” Steeg said. “We bring two tarps to every Super Bowl, because we are used to rain.”

This will be the fifth Super Bowl at the Rose Bowl, but the first since modest renovation last year. The field’s drainage is considered among the best in the nation.

A bigger problem for the NFL is getting the practice field for Buffalo ready in time. The Bills are scheduled to begin practice at USC next Monday, but the Trojans’ practice field has not been resodded yet. No problems have been reported at UCLA, where Dallas will practice.

As for the Rose Bowl, the NFL is hoping that the weather forecasts calling for sunshine later this week are correct.

“There have been some problems caused by the rain,” Steeg said. “But it is nothing that a couple of days of sunshine can’t solve.”