After many months of negotiations, the final steps are being
taken for UCLA to secure a lease extension with the Rose Bowl to
keep the football team playing in Pasadena for the foreseeable
future.
The 20-year agreement was given to the Pasadena City Council
Monday night for its approval after the Rose Bowl Operating Co.
gave its own seal of approval last Thursday. Approval by the city
will take at least five votes from its eight-member council, though
only six council members were expected to be in attendance
Monday.
“I wouldn’t call it a formality, but there’s
no reason to think their approval won’t be granted,”
Pasadena Mayor Bill Bogaard said Monday. “I’m
cautiously optimistic.”
The agreement ““ which one RBOC member told the Pasadena
Star News was the equivalent of pulling a rabbit out of a hat
““ calls for major renovations to the 81-year-old stadium.
“We want to make the Rose Bowl a real home turf for UCLA
so we’ve explored a number of improvements,” Bogaard
said.
Specific projects include a new locker room facility as well as
a media center below the south end of the stadium, retrofitting the
stadium to seismic safety standards and the repair of the video
board system, an undertaking that could cost between $13
million-$14 million and would start in 15 months.
More importantly, the lease also gives the university ultimate
veto power on bringing in any National Football League team to the
stadium, a quest Pasadena has been actively pursuing. This veto
power gives UCLA a solid safety blanket if a team were to come to
the Rose Bowl. The $500 million process to make the stadium
NFL-ready would mandate a two-year Bruin vacation from the storied
Pasadena stadium where they’ve played since 1982.
In addition to the NFL veto, UCLA will also be granted a return
to a seat on the RBOC board of directors, a position it lost when
the City Council voted it out several years ago.
While UCLA has secured most (if not all) of their terms in this
potential agreement, those involved with the extension were not
always as optimistic.
“Until the last two months, we thought the longest
possible agreement we could reach was 10 years,” Bogaard
said. “We’re pleased to have the proposal be for 20
years.
“We expected there would be an agreement. UCLA really has
no alternative.”
The UCLA Athletic Department could not comment on the situation
until the extension has been finalized, but referred inquiries back
to a previous statement made in November 2003.
“A long-term lease will provide the basis for financing
significant improvements to the stadium that will benefit the UCLA
football program and its fans,” the statement read.
If the Pasadena City Council approves the agreement as expected,
all that would be needed to formally finalize the extension is an
approval by the University of California Regents, which is expected
to come later this week.
The last UCLA lease with the Rose Bowl expired after the 2003
season.