News of the Arroyo
Title: | Rose Bowl group seeks revamp ideas |
Subtitle: | |
Date: | 2004-06-24 |
Summary: | June 23, 2004 - Pasadena and Rose Bowl officials toured Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wi to get some ideas about how to transform the aging stadium in the Arroyo Seco for use by the NFL. |
Author: | Gary Scott, Staff Writer |
Publication: | Pasadena Star News |
Content: | Officials tour Lambeau Wednesday, June 23, 2004 - On Wednesday afternoon, months after the National Football League season ended and months before the new season begins, people had packed the restaurants at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis. The pro shop was doing a steady business and at least a dozen tour groups passed through, with gawkers wandering around the atrium and visiting the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame tickets $10 for adults, $5 for kids. \"This stadium is open seven days a week, it has lots of restaurants and stores,\' recounted Pasadena City Manager Cynthia Kurtz. \"As we walked inside, I was amazed at the number of people there.\' As Kurtz and others from the Rose Bowl contingent learned during their own tour of Lambeau and its environs, more than distance separates Green Bay and Pasadena. \"There is a drastically different environment here than in Southern California, where people have many, many choices of things they can do for recreation,\' said Bill Thomson, who is helping lead the Rose Bowl bid for a pro football team. NFL representatives invited the Rose Bowl group to Lambeau see how architects were able to successfully add the amenities demanded by the modern pro football fan onto a stadium that has strong sentimental attachment in the community. Joining Kurtz and Thomson were council members Steve Madison and Joyce Streator, Rose Bowl board member Ed Garlock and sports broker John Moag. The NFL was represented by Executive Vice President Eric Grubman, Senior Vice President Neil Glat and senior manager Chris Hardart. NFL architects Hammes Co. and Pasadena architects HOK were also on hand. The idea behind the tour was to showcase the NFL\'s ability to find compromise between its own financial needs, i.e., club seating and luxury suites, and the desires of the community. Striking that balance has been the major thorn for HOK, which is working on a new renovation plan for the Rose Bowl after the NFL rejected the one unveiled last year. Streator said she appreciated what the NFL was able to do at Lambeau, but said the challenges for the Rose Bowl are quite different. \"I think what they have done here at Lambeau is good for Wisconsin. They had a set of problems and they found an attractive way to deal with it,\' said Streator, adding, \"Their problems are not our problems.\' \"What they have here won\'t work for us,\' Streator continued. Nonetheless, she said the face-to-face discussions with NFL officials were fruitful. \"I think they have a greater awareness of where our lines are drawn,\' Streator said. \"I\'m leaving here optimistic.\' Built in 1957, Lambeau recently underwent a $295 million renovation under the direction of Hammes Co., which is now consulting for the NFL on its hunt for a Los Angeles-area stadium site. The NFL wants to return to Los Angeles by 2008. Other contenders are the city of Carson and the Coliseum. According to the taxi drivers, hotel clerks and everyone else Kurtz talked to, the Lambeau Field renovation is a complete success. But where Pasadena wants to preserve the Rose Bowl\'s National Historic Landmark status, Packers fans wanted to keep the original metal bleachers. Nonetheless, Kurtz said she came away with a much better understanding of how an NFL stadium operates, and what the league needs to turn a profit. Issues like convenience and comfort, as well as the ease with which fans can circulate, are important issues for a successful stadium. The Rose Bowl, as it exists, does not fit the bill. \"The more I learn about stadiums and how the design is used to fix functional and operational issues, the more it makes me think about how we can do that at the Rose Bowl and still make it feel like the Rose Bowl,\' Kurtz said. And Rose Bowl General Manager Darryl Dunn said that while the Rose Bowl design will not mimic Lambeau Field\'s, seeing the renovation puts the NFL and city officials on the same page. \"We are not going to dig up Lambeau Field and plop it at the Rose Bowl, that is not going to happen,\' Dunn said. \"But it gives us something to work from.\' Gary Scott can be reached at (626) 578-6300, Ext. 4458, or by e-mail at gary.scott@sgvn.com . |
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