At A Crossroads

The Rose Bowl stadium is a national historic landmark, an 80-year-old structure that boasts a rich and colorful past.

It also is a stadium with a future, though it remains to be seen whether it will be as rosy as its name or as rocky as the nearby San Gabriel Mountains that rise above it.

“If we sit on our laurels, we’re asking for it,” said Darryl Dunn, general manager of the Rose Bowl. “We need to find ways to invest in the facility. If we can continue to do that, I believe it will continue to be vibrant and one of the premier stadiums in the country.”

Maintaining both a stadium that can accommodate more than 106,000 and a golf course that helps sustain it, keeping longtime tenant UCLA, and attracting new tenants and events are the main challenges facing the Rose Bowl, which anchors the scenic Arroyo Seco.

Of course, if a new 50,000-to 60,000-seat stadium were to be built in Southern California, everything could change.

“As soon as you build a brand-spanking new stadium in the Los Angeles area that has all the bells and whistles, the Rose Bowl will immediately feel much more outdated,” said Rick Burton, executive director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon.

That threat, for the time being, appears to be remote. The NFL bypassed stadium proposals in Carson and at Hollywood Park in October 1999 and awarded an expansion franchise to Houston.

Meanwhile, Pasadena has invested $32 million over the last 10 years in improvements at the Rose Bowl, Dunn said, and profits from the Brookside Golf Course service a bond debt that stands at about $2.5 million a year.

The Rose Bowl Operating Co., a nonprofit organization that operates the stadium and golf course, had a net profit of $1.3 million in the last fiscal year that ended June 30, Dunn said.

In 2001, there were 22 events at the Rose Bowl, including five UCLA football games, 15 Los Angeles Galaxy games, a U.S.-Brazil soccer game and one concert by *NSYNC. This year, there will be closer to 30 events as six international Gold Cup soccer games will be added to the schedule.

The annual Rose Bowl game remains the facility’s star attraction. Traditionally a matchup between teams from the Pacific 10 and Big Ten conferences, the game’s profile will be even higher on Thursday when Miami plays Nebraska in the bowl championship series national championship game.

A flea market run by R.G. Canning Attractions has the second-longest tenure at the Rose Bowl. The monthly event is beginning its 32nd year at the stadium and parking lot. It draws about 15,000 on the second Sunday of each month and generates $800,000 a year.

“It’s a tremendous winner for us, a staple,” Dunn said.

UCLA’s football program has called the Rose Bowl home since leaving the Coliseum after the 1981 season. Bruin fans enjoy the ambience of the Arroyo Seco, and improvements in seating, restrooms and concessions over the years have helped temper the disadvantage of being 25 miles from the Westwood campus.

Average attendance for seven Bruin home games was 67,280 in 2000 and 66,613 for five home games this past season, according to UCLA spokesman Marc Dellins.

UCLA’s current contract with the Rose Bowl ends after the 2003 season. Signing UCLA into a long-term contract is one of Dunn’s top priorities, though negotiations with the school are not likely to begin until a replacement is named for outgoing athletic director Pete Dalis.

“It’s pretty clear that you have to have UCLA there long term,” said David Carter, president of the Sports Business Group, a consulting firm that specializes in strategic marketing for the sports industry and is working with the Rose Bowl on a business plan.

The Rose Bowl will lose the Galaxy, a tenant since 1996, after the 2002 Major League Soccer season when the team moves to a $34-million, 20,000-seat soccer specific stadium under construction in Carson.

Dunn, however, said the loss of the Galaxy, which drew an average per game of 17,387, last season, can be offset by more international soccer matches at the Rose Bowl, which hosted the Women’s World Cup in 1999.

Later this month, for example, the Rose Bowl will co-host with Miami the 12-nation Gold Cup. The United States and Mexico are among the teams that will compete at the Rose Bowl. The six scheduled matches in Pasadena are expected to draw more than 200,000 over a two-week period, Dunn said.

Wango Tango, a one-day concert sponsored by radio station KIIS-FM, has been booked for June and is the only music event currently on the Rose Bowl schedule. The event is still waiting for approval by the Pasadena City Council.

“We have to find ways to bring more events into the facility,” Dunn said. “The question is, ‘What’s out there?’ In a stadium this size, what’s big enough to fit here?”

The Rose Bowl has 46 suites but it’s unlikely that it would be considered a permanent home for an NFL team. It could, however, be used as a temporary facility if the league puts a team in Los Angeles.

The Rose Bowl has played host to five Super Bowls, most recently the 1993 game between Dallas and Buffalo. In October, the Rose Bowl was regarded as the No. 1 alternative site for this season’s Super Bowl before the NFL and the National Automobile Dealers Assn. reached an agreement to switch convention dates in New Orleans. The conflict arose because the NFL postponed Week 2 games in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Jim Steeg, the NFL’s senior vice president for special events, said league policy currently prevents a Super Bowl from being awarded to a city with no NFL team.

“But who knows?” Steeg said. “All these things change. The city and the police department in Pasadena have always been good friends to the NFL.”

Other than making sure Thursday’s game goes off smoothly, Dunn said the Rose Bowl’s most immediate order of business is a meeting next month with the Pasadena City Council. At that time, the Rose Bowl Operating Co. will present a three-year strategic plan that charts the future and direction of the stadium.

Later this year, Dunn hopes to gain final approval for a use plan that was approved in concept by the council in August 2000. The plan increases from 12 to 25 the number of events with a minimum attendance of 20,000 that can be held at the Rose Bowl. That plan, however, cannot be voted on until an environmental impact report for the entire Arroyo is completed in April or May.

“As long as a new stadium is not built in Southern California, we’re going to be OK,” Dunn said. “We have a challenges in front if us even if a new stadium is not built, but with some planning and foresight we should be able to meet them.”

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Staff writer Sam Farmer contributed to this report.