Price of Roses Is Going Higher

The Rose Bowl is expected to raise its ticket prices from $75 to $110 for the 1999 game, marking the second increase in four years, an overall boost of 139% since the 1995 game. A ticket to that game cost $46.

The price boost, recommended recently by the Rose Bowl’s game management committee and approved in a vote Monday, was confirmed Tuesday by Pacific 10 Conference officials.

The increase is subject to conference and Tournament of Roses executive committee approval, said Tom Hansen, Pac-10 commissioner.

“We [the management committee] had a meeting about 10 days ago,” Hansen said. “I support it and I believe people will, given the price structure of tickets in the L.A. marketplace.”

Said Harriman Cronk, chairman of the Tournament of Roses football committee: “It was kind of an evolution. It wasn’t an attempt to gouge anybody. I’ve heard some comments already. But when you look at what other events are charging, and at what the demand is, it isn’t out of line. . . . We have been so much lower than the other games, and it still puts us lower [than some of the others].”

Hansen said the $110 recommendation is for one year. As part of college football’s new Super Alliance, the Rose Bowl will host the national championship game in 2002. The assumption is that, by then, that $110 will be more.

The recommended ’99 increase could have been greater. Jim Muldoon, an assistant commissioner with the Pac-10, said a range of $90 to $125 was discussed.

“There’s always resistance to price increases,” Muldoon said. “But considering it’s the Rose Bowl, it’s probably still a bargain. I paid $114 for two tickets to “Showboat” and that plays six days a week.

“This is once a year. I don’t think $110 is too much. In comparison to other playoff games, the Rose Bowl is not out of line.”

There was also discussion at the committee level about scaling the tickets.

In fact, Cronk said in January it probably would be scaling tickets for the first time, saying you can’t charge the same price for chairs on the 50-yard line as you would for a bench seat in the end zone.

But that proposal did not fly.

“It creates a caste system,” Muldoon said, adding that it also would be a more difficult administrative task.

What the Rose Bowl is doing is not necessarily out of line with its alliance partners. The Fiesta Bowl, which starts off the four-year cycle with the national championship game, announced it is raising prices for the 1999 game to $135 for a stadium seat and $195 for a loge seat.

In 1998, the average ticket price at the Fiesta Bowl was $80.

The Orange and Sugar bowls are lowering prices in non-championship years.

The Sugar Bowl, which will hold the championship game in 2000, will charge prices of $125 and $150 in 2000 and $65, $75 and $95 in non-championship years. A Sugar Bowl official said the event was able to “hold the line” from the 1998 game, in which the average ticket price was about $75.

The Orange Bowl will charge $125 and $150 in 2001 for the championship game and $80 and $90 in non-championship years.

The Orange Bowl was sold out its 1998 game, and tickets were going for double the face value of $80 and $125.

As for the Rose Bowl, there will be fewer tickets available. Stadium capacity will be reduced to a little more than 92,000 because of renovations for handicapped seating as well as the installation of chair-backed seating.

The last time fewer than 100,000 attended a Rose Bowl game was in 1993 when the Michigan-Washington matchup drew 94,236.