A consumer’s guide to the best and worst of sports media and merchandise. Ground rules: If it can be read, played, heard, observed, worn, viewed, dialed or downloaded, it’s in play here.

What: Tournament of Roses Web site.

Where: www.tournamentofroses.com

You would hardly expect this stolid--or is it solid?--tradition-laden bowl game to have a frantic, graphically driven Web site.

No way.

Leave that to the upstarts, the younger bowl games on the block. (In a minor concession to design, there are a few roses to be found.)

For an information-seeking spectator, the basics are here, including answers to such frequently asked questions as: How can I see the floats after the Rose Parade? How can I get tickets to the game?

Speaking of the last question, this Web site might have helped those poor folk from Wisconsin left out in the cold, figuratively speaking, without tickets in 1994.

Scores of past Rose Bowl games are listed, along with a Rose Bowl map and a few nuggets of history.

The original stadium seated 57,000, was horseshoe-shaped and opened at the south end. It cost $272,198.26, or about the same as renting a luxury box at any new stadium these days.

Lack of competition almost did in the Rose Bowl before it reached the toddler stage. In 1902, Michigan was crushing Stanford, 49-0, when the game was abandoned in the third quarter.

The games resumed in 1916, and in the second installation of the Rose Bowl, Washington State showed a bit more mercy, defeating Brown, 14-0.