New ordinance allows NFL to use Rose Bowl temporarily

If an NFL team wants to use the Rose Bowl, it's available.

The Pasadena City Council passed an ordinance doubling the number of large events allowed each year at the Rose Bowl to accommodate an NFL team.

The council passed the ordinance after a meeting that started Monday and continued until early Tuesday morning.

“I’m asking you to extend your hand and help us:  We need jobs.  The NFL to me means ‘Not For Long,’” said longtime Pasadena resident Porfirio Frausto.

Frausto was one of 125 people who showed up to the meeting. He said letting an NFL team use the Rose Bowl temporarily would bring jobs and money.
 
“Any city in the world in these economic times, having a stadium, they wouldn’t waste it. They would take advantage of it," said Frausto.

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Leanne Wagoner, with the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce, said the money would benefit many businesses.

“Restaurant, retail, and hotels and motels will see a significant increase in business resulting from 10 weekends of NFL activity per year," said Wagoner.

But many people who live in neighborhoods near the Rose Bowl said they do not need more traffic jams, noise, and rowdy football fans. 

Loring Guessous lives west of the stadium and said when UCLA plays there she has to adjust when she comes and goes around.

"I have to accommodate my driving in and out of the community around arrival, departure times of the game, clearly," said Guessous.

Before the Pasadena City Council meeting, she took a power walk on the jogging track at the Rose Bowl grounds, which include soccer fields, an aquatic center, and a golf course.

"A lot of us west side residents end up going outside the community for our shopping and everything else that we would otherwise spend our dollars – entertainment purposes – here," said Guessous. "Because it’s just too complicated to try to cut across town on those game days."  

Despite concerns by some neighbors, the Pasadena City Council passed the ordinance. They cited a consulting firm's report which shows an NFL team using the Rose Bowl could net the city up to $10 million a year.

Money that would potentially help pay to renovate the Rose Bowl.  

Now, all they need is an NFL team.