Last June 2005, after the citizens of Pasadena spoke loudly and passionately, the City Council rejected the idea of courting an NFL team to the Rose Bowl and a majority of our City Councilmembers (Mayor Bogaard, Vice Mayor Madison, Councilmembers Gordo, Haderlein, Tyler) voted to study a No NFL “Plan B” for the Rose Bowl.  Three City Councilmembers (Holden, Little, Streator) have sponsored a ballot initiative that, if passed, will serve as a contract with the NFL.  There are no details in the initiative which spell out financial benefits to other City entities such as schools, parks or recreation facilities.  Pasadena residents would be giving away TOO MUCH for the financial benefit of too few.

Top 10 Reasons the NFL Initiative is a BAD idea for Pasadena:

 1.  Loss of Control.  It is not good practice to enter into a contractual relationship between the City and the NFL through the initiative process.  This Initiative, if passed, will cede control of the Rose Bowl to the NFL for up to 55 years. 

2.  A giveaway of our National Historic Landmark Rose Bowl and Pasadena's largest park, the Arroyo Seco, to the profit making enterprise of the NFL.  This initiative (which is 68 legal-sized pages with lots of fine print!), removes the City Council and YOUR voice from the decision-making and negotiating process.  There is evidence that there was behind-the-scenes assistance from the NFL and its attorneys (Pasadena Star-News, August 17, 2005).  What loop-holes are embedded into this document that we will have to live with for up to 55 years?

3.  Loss of our parkland.  The Arroyo Seco is Pasadena’s largest public park and represents 90% of our city’s parkland.  With the NFL in residence, the Central Arroyo will be closed to recreational users for at least 25 large events per year.  The NFL also will have the right for up to 20 additional non-NFL events and the City will have the right for an additional 5 events which will close off large areas of the Arroyo Seco, bringing the total number of Rose Bowl event days to 50!  That averages almost one event per week all year long; most of those events occurring on the weekends when our citizens use our parks the most. 

4.  Traffic! Traffic! Traffic!  Traffic and noise will increase on all major access roads in and out of our City on event-days -- 38,000 new car trips on each game day.

5.  Almost one million square feet of commercial space in the Arroyo.  The “new” Rose Bowl envisioned by the NFL will contain almost one million square feet of commercial space including luxury boxes, restaurants, gift shops and a museum.  All this commercial activity will take revenue away from established Pasadena businesses.

6.  NFL standards for advertising and signage on the stadium exterior.  The NFL will have the “exclusive right as agent for the city” to sell naming rights to the Stadium field and the Stadium exterior on the entrance gates and the plaza areas.

7.  Loss of our historic landmark.  The Rose Bowl will lose its National Historic Landmark status if the design stipulated in this NFL Initiative is implemented.

8.  Lost access to Arroyo recreatioinal activities.  The AAF Rose Bowl Aquatics Center, the soccer fields, Jackie Robinson Field, Kidspace Children’s Museum, the tennis courts and Brookside Golf Course will suffer from forced displacement days.  The NFL Initiative offers no mitigation or financial compensation to the recreational facilities located in the Arroyo and Brookside Park for the inevitable closures.  Recreational users of these facilities and the Arroyo Seco parkland will be squeezed out many of the weekend days each year. 

9.  72% of the cars will be parked on our green space.  The NFL will be given parking rights for 18,000 cars in the Arroyo.  Currently, only 4,990 paved parking spaces exist.  The remaining cars (13,000 or 72% of the total) will be parked on the turf area around the stadium and on the golf course.  The turf areas and greens will suffer extensive damage.

10.  These terms were rejected by the City Council.  This initiative, if passed, would force the City to enter into a less favorable lease and Rose Bowl renovation agreement with the NFL than the City Council, after much debate and public input, has just rejected.