News of the Arroyo
Title: | NFL in Pasadena? |
Subtitle: | Too many roadblocks |
Date: | 2006-03-01 |
Summary: | March 1, 2006 - Robert Rector analyzes the prospects of an NFL franchise in the Rose Bowl: "it would be the biggest upset in football history." |
Author: | Robert Rector |
Publication: | Pasadena Star news |
Content: | San Gabriel Valley Tribune I believe that Pasadena City Councilman Chris Holden\'s efforts to collect thousands of signatures will succeed in putting the question of whether to bring professional football to the Rose Bowl on the ballot. I believe that the people of Pasadena, swayed by this outpouring of support for the NFL, will approve the ballot measure. I believe the NFL, impressed with this heartfelt grass-roots effort, will immediately reopen negotiations with the city of Pasadena. I believe the NFL will award a professional football franchise to Pasadena. I believe in the Tooth Fairy. OK, folks, it\'s time to put aside the fairy tales. Much as I admire Holden\'s tenacity, much as I salute his commitment to participatory democracy in deciding the NFL issue, the sun will never shine on a professional football team in the Rose Bowl. And here\'s why. Roadblock No.1, the NFL. If you like swimming with sharks, pull up a chair and play poker with the NFL. These guys conduct secret backdoor negotiations, play one group off another and extract countless millions of dollars from would-be suitors. The NFL\'s business model would make Enron blush. When it comes to a potential franchise, the NFL has historically shown a preference for a locale in which the football-mad residents are begging, craving, crying for a team so much that they are willing to do anything to get one, including spending vast hordes of private cash, not to mention bundles of tax dollars. They even have a name for it: political will. Which brings us to: Roadblock No.2, the city itself. Pasadena isn\'t begging, craving, crying for an NFL team. Oh sure, the merchants would like to hear the seductive whisper of dollars slipping into cash registers on game days. But the city\'s real motive in all this was to get the NFL to drop a few hundred million on renovating a decaying Rose Bowl which the city can\'t afford to refurbish but is committed to improving because of its contract with UCLA, its only tenant. Even Darryl Dunn, the Rose Bowl general manager, conceded at one point that \"We\'re not after this for the NFL, we\'re after this to secure our future. We have an opportunity to make an... old stadium young.\" Not exactly the kind of \"political will\" the NFL seeks. So when negotiations between the city and the NFL began to smell, the city\'s reaction was swift and sure. \"We don\'t want Pasadena to be a pawn in the NFL\'s negotiation deal with another community,\" Mayor Bill Bogaard said. \"It\'s a waste of time,\" added Councilman Sid Tyler. Roadblock No.3, money. Chris Holden and his group, the Citizens to Save the Rose Bowl, don\'t have any. Campaign finance statements show Citizens to Save the Rose Bowl has spent almost all the money it has raised on signature gatherers. As of Dec.31, the committee had taken in $35,423 in monetary contributions and spent $34,560, leaving $863 in the account. In the meantime, Pasadena First, a well- financed group of residents and preservationists opposed to the NFL in the Rose Bowl, has thrown up one legal challenge after another to the ballot initiative. Fighting these challenges could prove costly. And the well-heeled West Pasadena Residents Assn., whose members live near the stadium and probably have nightmares about Raider fans carousing through their neighborhoods, has pledged to use all its considerable resources (read money and legal aid) to oppose the initiative. \"We are never going to allow the NFL in Pasadena. It\'s that simple,\" said WPRA board member Mike Volger. Roadblock No.4, the love factor. Los Angeles loves the NFL. Twice, the city has been left like a bride at the alter by NFL franchises and like a character in a soap opera, it\'s still madly in love with the idea of a pro football team. Anaheim is casting long, loving glances as well but with some reservations. Both have demonstrated a yearning for professional football that, by comparison, simply doesn\'t exist in Pasadena, 16,000 petitions notwithstanding. The NFL may still pull a rabbit out of its hat when it comes to football in Los Angeles. It could award franchises to both Los Angeles and Anaheim. It could award a franchise to Irwindale for all we know. But if the NFL\'s plans include Pasadena, it would be the biggest upset in football history. robert.rector@sgvn.com Robert Rector is a former editor with the Pasadena Star-News and the Los Angeles Times. |
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