ROSE BOWL-COLORED GLASSES?Byline: KEVIN MODESTI PASADENA - On the cracked and pitted concrete steps outside the Rose Bowl's south end zone, the promoters of a pro-football-worthy stadium renovation propped up a speaker's podium and architects' paintings Tuesday morning and prayed to the Weather Channel. ``(Locals) told me it was going to rain and we'd have to move this press conference indoors,'' said John Moag, the Maryland-based chief of the Rose Bowl's effort to lure an NFL NFL abbr. National Football League NFL (US) n abbr (= National Football League) → Fußball-Nationalliga team. ``I'm not from here, but I know better. I know it doesn't rain in Pasadena.'' The sky indeed came up blue above the giant neon rose - just as it is on all of those uncannily sunny New Year's Days New Year's Day, among ancient peoples the first day of the year frequently corresponded to the vernal or autumnal equinox, or to the summer or winter solstice. In the Middle Ages it was celebrated among Christians usually on Mar. 25. that Moag has seen on TV - as pretty pastel conceptions of a space-age Rose Bowl, vague plans for $500 million in financing and unconfirmed claims of NFL interest were shown off to reporters and Pasadena's powerful. ``If I was an (L.A.-area) NFL fan,'' Moag declared more seriously, ``this is a pretty good day.'' How good is ``pretty good''? Does this plan have a better chance than the ones from Downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area. The sprawling, multi-centered megacity is such that its downtown core is often considered just another district like Hollywood or , Chavez Ravine and Carson? Is some unidentified football team on its way here, nine years after the Rams and Raiders hit the highway? Well, you and I are from here, and experience tells us when a Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, football proposal looks too good to be true ... it probably is. The reasons for optimism begin with the proven men on Tuesday's platform: Moag, the sports broker credited with (or blamed for) the Cleveland Browns
The good news extends to the plausible designs on the artists' easels, calling for the 81-year-old stadium's distinctively shallow structure to be maintained even as its 92,000-seat capacity is reduced by about one-third, luxury suites rise above the bowl's rim, and pedestrian areas and the surrounding Arroyo Seco Arroyo Seco (Spanish: "dry creek") may refer to:
The pluses deepen with the methodical efforts to make sure Pasadena leaders and citizens are signed on to the plan, which could be presented to NFL owners at the league's May 20-21 meetings in Philadelphia. ``The people (involved) are huge,'' said The Sports Business Group's David M. Carter, a Redondo Beach-based authority on the sports industry and a consultant to Rose Bowl executives. ``This plan allays a lot of the fears about what would happen to the (landmark) building.'' The very public politicking on behalf of the Rose Bowl plan promises ``a deal in which everybody has a stake,'' Carter said. ``This isn't a midnight deal that's going to be rammed through some municipality MUNICIPALITY. The body of officers, taken collectively, belonging to a city, who are appointed to manage its affairs and defend its interests. . ... This (proposal) has a different look and feel at this stage.'' Having said that, Carter conceded, ``It's right (for fans) to take a wait- and-see attitude. ... I think at this point you're right to defer to history. Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. lost the Rams and the Raiders. And every time a group has got a head of steam, it has petered out.'' Tuesday's unveiling might hit the leaders of competing Southern California efforts like a blindside blitz, and their responses in the next few weeks will help us decide how seriously to take the Pasadena project. Certainly, the deep-voiced Moag and the fair-haired Thomson are serious about it. They say developing the proposal was ``the hardest part.'' They envision needing nine months to complete an environmental-impact study and 23 months for construction. In that time, the UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX football team and perhaps even the Rose Bowl game might have to find a temporary home. The reasons for skepticism begin with the need to get about half a billion dollars from the NFL, which would finance the construction cost based on the promise of future income from the stadium. ``Not a penny of taxpayer money'' will be used, Moag said. The question then is whether the NFL would want to make a deal in which it wouldn't reap taxpayer money. Maybe it's the NFL's intention to finance a Rose Bowl upgrade and use it to extort To compel or coerce, as in a confession or information, by any means serving to overcome the other's power of resistance, thus making the confession or admission involuntary. To gain by wrongful methods; to obtain in an unlawful manner, as in to compel payments by means of threats of tax cash out of other cities whose teams could move to Pasadena if their own stadium deals weren't sweetened sweet·en v. sweet·ened, sweet·en·ing, sweet·ens v.tr. 1. To make sweet or sweeter by adding sugar, honey, saccharin, or another sweet substance. 2. To make more pleasant or agreeable. . Another question: Where were NFL representatives Tuesday, when the promoters had advertised a satellite-link appearance by commissioner Paul Tagliabue Paul John Tagliabue (born November 24 1940 in Jersey City, New Jersey) was the Commissioner of the National Football League. He took the position in 1989 and was succeeded by Roger Goodell, who was elected to the position on August 8, 2006. ? Perhaps it's the NFL's intention to privately encourage Pasadena but avoid publicly discouraging other L.A.-area bids. ``We've kept our focus on the end zone and not look to see who's coming in to tackle from one side or another,'' Moag said. Moag said he talks with NFL leaders ``almost on a daily basis'' and hopes to come back from the Philadelphia meetings with an oral deal to give the granddaddy of all football stadiums a facelift - a deal that would make sense for the league only if it then gave us a team. Sounds good. Looks good. Too good? CAPTION(S): photo Photo: (color) An investment group unveils a plan to renovate the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, prompting talk of an NFL team returning to Los Angeles. |
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