Watch the Rose Bowl on TV, That’s the Ticket

When Michigan safety Marcus Ray picked off Ohio State quarterback Joe Germaine’s pass as time ran out on the Buckeyes Nov. 23 in Columbus, boos resounded in ticket offices and travel bureaus all across Southern California.

Michigan’s upset of previously unbeaten Ohio State ruined what figured to be a dramatic Rose Bowl game between two undefeated teams--Arizona State and Ohio State--with the winner first in line behind Florida State for the national championship.

A Seminole loss to Florida in the Sugar Bowl is still expected to mean a national championship for Arizona State, should the Sun Devils beat the Buckeyes on New Year’s Day.

But one operator of tour packages that include tickets to the Rose Bowl game and the Rose Parade, and a hotel room, estimated that he lost 20-30% of his business when Ray halted Ohio State’s march to an unbeaten season.

Still, that doesn’t mean you can wander over to the Rose Bowl after the parade on New Year’s Day and buy a few tickets to the game at the face value of $75. All 98,245 seats will be long gone by kickoff.

In fact, the search for more seats at the participating schools is already underway.

The basic ticket breakdown:

--A total of 45,018 tickets go to the Pacific 10 Conference, 36,416 of those seats to the participating school, Arizona State. Of the remaining tickets, 4,250 go to the other conference teams. UCLA and USC get 1,250 tickets each and the other seven Pac-10 schools 250 apiece.

--The Big Ten gets 30,804, with the participating school, Ohio State, getting more than 28,000 and the other conference schools dividing the rest.

--The Tournament of Roses organization keeps 22,423 tickets for suite occupants, the handicapped, sponsors, broadcast executives and others. Included in this category are the 2,000 seats made available to the public, 1,000 nationally, 500 to Pasadena residents and 500 for tour packages. Those were sold out the day they went on sale last week.

The mix has changed a bit from three years ago, when a huge demand for tickets by Wisconsin supporters, desperate after a three-decade drought between Rose Bowls, left many fans without tickets. Many fans came to California on package deals, only to learn the game tickets they had been promised were not available.

For the 1994 Rose Bowl, Wisconsin got 21,200 of the 21,750 seats made available to the Big Ten. A year later, although the conference received a few more tickets, the participating team actually got fewer, Penn State receiving 19,054 of 21,804 conference tickets. Last year, Northwestern, the conference representative, got 21,904 of the 24,304 seats made available to the Big Ten.

This year, the Big Ten is getting more tickets than ever, the extras coming out of the Pac-10 allotment.

No problems are expected this time with tour packages because the number of tickets available for that purpose is being carefully regulated. Ohio State has set aside 4,900 of its tickets for package deals, Arizona State about 3,500.

“There were a lot of people upset that there weren’t more,” said Bill Loadman of the Ohio State sports information office.

To keep the scalpers from turning big profits in Ohio, those buying tickets were told they would have to pick them up in Pasadena on Dec. 30 or 31.

Still there are already reports of the $75 tickets going for $500 to $800 in Ohio and more than $400 in Arizona, where a $50 tax surcharge has been slapped on each $75 ticket.

The biggest demand locally has already passed, according to Russell Kim of Kim Tours, a long-time Southern California fixture in the business of providing Rose Bowl tour packages.

“People jump on the bandwagon early because they are afraid they are going to be left out,” Kim said. “But then, they slack off. The demand was certainly down after Ohio State lost to Michigan. That definitely took some of the glitter off.

“In terms of tour packages, this one is not even in the top 10 of those we’ve handled over the last 20 years. In the old days, it was big. One year with Indiana, we sold 10,000 tours, big enough for 200 buses, in one day. It was a military movement. We haven’t sold that many in any one of the last four years.”

Kim concedes that part of the problem now is that his company has far more competition than it had two decades ago.

Cost is also a factor.

“The average package is about $1,000, plus $500 for air fare,” Kim said. “That’s $3,000 per couple. That’s a lot of money to come and see a football game.”

Alan Hollander of Murray’s, a large Southern California ticket dealer, is guessing that the value of Rose Bowl tickets will peak at $175-$200 for the best seats.

Not the hot ticket it has been, especially when the Bruins or Trojans were involved, but certainly warm enough to make it a happy new year for the scalpers.