Rose Bowl Backers Encouraged

Pasadena officials met in New York on Wednesday with NFL executives and left feeling their bid to bring a pro football team to the Rose Bowl is back on track.

NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue attended the two-hour meeting, as did Chief Operating Officer Roger Goodell, who oversees all stadium issues. Joining investment banker John Moag and Rose Bowl General Manager Darryl Dunn for the meeting were Pasadena City Manager Cynthia Kurtz and Finance Director Jay Goldstone.

Kurtz said the focus of the meeting was “walking through” the 15-point letter that was approved by the Pasadena City Council and submitted to the league last month, rough parameters of what a stadium deal might look like.

“What will be telling to us, I believe, is if they are willing to sit down and spend time with us, and are willing to negotiate on terms that we can then bring back to the city council, that’s the most we can expect,” Kurtz said. “Today was the first of what I believe will be many meetings.”

Moag and others associated with the Rose Bowl said they felt blindsided by the league’s infatuation with a 157-acre landfill in Carson. Team owners voted almost unanimously to authorize Tagliabue to advance $10 million to GMS Realty, developer of the Carson site, to investigate the feasibility of building a stadium on the plot. Kurtz said NFL executives are sensitive to the fact Pasadena officials were surprised by that.

“We talked about that,” she said. “They’re sensitive and they realize that we didn’t realize there was another property that was as far along. But they went back to the resolution they passed, which they take very seriously, and the statements in there about Pasadena. And they assured us that Pasadena is a very serious proposal to them.”

The NFL released a statement about Wednesday’s meeting, saying: “Today’s discussion is part of an ongoing process designed to return an NFL team presence and Super Bowls to the Los Angeles area. We are committed to continuing the dialogue with Pasadena and moving the process in a positive direction. We expect this process to involve many more such discussions -- in person and on the telephone -- including meetings in Pasadena.”