Rose Parade Bleachers Leave City Not Sitting Pretty

Some of them stand for 2 1/2 months so some of us can sit for 2 1/2 hours.

That's grandstanding for you today, Pasadena-style.

Nearly 110,000 bleacher seats have been installed in nooks and crannies and atop parking lots along the route of this morning's Tournament of Roses Parade.

The seating spills from shopping-district alcoves, fills church courtyards and wraps around storefronts and palm trees on spindly legs made of bolted-together pipe.

Many paradegoers spend as much as $85 for a seat and an unobstructed view of the 100 passing floats and marching bands.

Others sit in some of the choicest seats for free.

Over the last half-century, grandstands have increasingly become a permanent fixture at the Rose Parade. Some are up so long, in fact, that they take on a permanence of their own.

Pasadena officials allow bleacher builders to erect grandstands near Orange Grove Avenue and Colorado Boulevard as early as Nov. 7 and leave them up until Jan. 15.

Some property owners who rent grandstand space demand faster building and removal.

"We make sure ours are the last to go up and the first to come down. It's in our agreement," said Tim Sun, business manager of the First United Methodist Church at 500 E. Colorado Blvd.

The church leases bleacher space to the Sharp Seating Co., the official grandstand provider for the parade. Sun declined to say how much the church is paid by Sharp -- which sells viewing spots there for $55 a seat.

Scaffolding for the bleachers covers most of the entrance court to the 80-year-old English Gothic-style church. "Especially at Christmas, it's not that attractive," acknowledged Senior Pastor David Richardson.

A mile to the east, bleachers in front of Holliston United Methodist Church at 1305 E. Colorado Blvd. cover the front of the castle-like, hand-hewn sandstone landmark.

The church pays Sharp Seating to erect the bleachers for it each year. Then church leaders sell the 1,400 seats for $45 each. When parking fees and proceeds from a pre-parade church-served breakfast are tallied, the church takes in about $40,000, said John Thompson, lay leader of the congregation.

"Our identity is totally taken away" when the church sign is removed to make room for the grandstand, said Assistant Pastor Melissa Rynders. "But this provides a very large part of our yearly budget."

A few blocks to the east, seating for about 15,000 obscures the front of Pasadena City College on East Colorado.