The NFL has
dangled its carrot. And now the Rose Bowl has six months to go get
it.
With NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue's
announcement that Pasadena is in the running for a Super Bowl in
2007 or 2008, the Rose Bowl's efforts to attract an NFL team will
be heightened in coming months.
NFL owners met Thursday but did not vote
to award any future Super Bowls. They tabled such discussion until
meetings in March or May.
By then, Rose Bowl officials hope to have
in place a proposal for a revamped facility that could house a
relocated NFL team and multiple Super Bowls.
"The next six months are really
going to shape this project, and I believe at that time we'll know
a lot more than we do now," Rose Bowl General Manager Darryl
Dunn said. "That's the critical bridge to determine the
feasibility of this project. We want to develop our package.
"And we need to do our due diligence
with the community in terms of all aspects … preservation, the
neighborhoods, complying with the California Environmental Quality
Act. We have a lot of work to do."
It starts next week, when John Moag, a
sports consultant hired by the city to lure an NFL team to
Pasadena, announces the architectural group to be involved in the
project.
That kicks off a chain of events that the
group hopes will culminate in a presentation to NFL owners in the
spring.
Once architectural plans are in place,
Moag can estimate how much money can be raised through the sale of
personal seat licenses, club seats and luxury suites, and also
discern how future Super Bowls impact the price the stadium could
charge for luxury suites.
"With the design, you'll be able to
determine where revenue streams are and how you can raise money to
build the stadium and make it economically attractive for an owner
to have a team in the Rose Bowl," Dunn said.
Moag has estimated it will cost more than
$300 million to revamp the Rose Bowl and make it an NFL- ready
venue. A good portion of that could come from naming rights, seat
licenses, club seat and suite revenue, and the stadium also could
apply for a G3 loan from the NFL, which could provide another $150
million.
The financial data, of course, is just
one duck the Rose Bowl must get in a row by spring. Moag's to-do
list before the next owners' meet? ings is lengthy.
"We would have an acceptable design
plan, and we would have a fi nancial plan that was workable,"
he said. "We'd have a traffic control plan that was a major
improvement over the current situation, we would have all our
revenue projections done and modeled out. And we'd have begun the
process of assembling all that various data."
Moag said he's working on an even tighter
timetable. He said the next three months are crucial, if not make
or break.
What can't be measured is the boost the
Rose Bowl's efforts received from Tagliabue's Super Bowl trial
balloon.
"We're in the first quarter, but so
far, it's going very well," Dunn said.
"The NFL is showing extreme interest
in our progress. The news about the Super Bowl is very positive.
We believe we have the best site at the end of the day."
Gabe Lacques can be reached at (626)
962-8811, Ext. 2239, or at gabe.lacques@sgvn.com.
