Rose Bowl Stadium

The Rose Bowl stadium is a national historic landmark, an 80-year-old structure that boasts a rich and colorful past. It also is a stadium with a future, though it remains to be seen whether it will be as rosy as its name or as rocky as the nearby San Gabriel Mountains that rise above it. "If we sit on our laurels, we're asking for it," said Darryl Dunn, general manager of the Rose Bowl. "We need to find ways to invest in the facility.

Ongoing stadium renovations won't affect the 90,000-plus fans expected to attend the 2012 Rose Bowl game between the Oregon Ducks and Wisconsin Badgers, Rose Bowl officials said this week. The stadium is undergoing a five-year, $160-million renovation that includes adding luxury seats and a new press box to the 89-year-old facility. Construction on a new video board on the north side of the stadium is complete, and four tunnels on the south of the stadium have doubled in width.

The City Council this week agreed to allow a motocross event at the Rose Bowl despite neighbors' protests that previous rallies have been among the noisiest events there. Council members approved the World Supercross Series event on a 6-2 vote, with council members Steve Madison and Joyce Streator, whose districts surround the bowl, dissenting. The supercross, an event in which dozens of the world's top riders race over a course of dirt mounds, will be held Nov. 20.

The public can watch workers put finishing touches on Rose Parade floats. Admission is $10; children ages 5 and younger get in free. Across from the Rose Bowl Stadium Rosemont Pavilion: 700 Seco St., Pasadena Brookside Pavilion (tent): Lot I, on the south side of the Rose Bowl Stadium Hours: Dec. 29 and 30: 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Dec. 31: 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Jan. 1: 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. Elsewhere in Pasadena Rose Palace: 835 S. Raymond Ave. Hours: Dec. 29-31: 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Jan. 1: 9 a.m. - 1 p.m.

You're one of those sports humbugs who always thought that football was garbage, and, by extrapolation, that the Super Bowl was the trashiest spectacle of the year. Well, you could be right.

Pasadena's 73-year-old granddaddy of stadiums, host to more Super Bowls than anywhere else, needs a minimum $40-million overhaul just to stay in the game. UCLA, whose lease expires in 1996, has already begun making ominous noises about the outmoded, deteriorated condition of the Rose Bowl, lobbying for theater-style seats, more restrooms, a giant video scoreboard and replacements for the dark, uninviting tunnel entryways.

The public can watch workers put finishing touches on Rose Parade floats. Admission is $10; children ages 5 and younger get in free. Across from the Rose Bowl Stadium Rosemont Pavilion: 700 Seco St., Pasadena Brookside Pavilion (tent): Lot I, on the south side of the Rose Bowl Stadium Hours: Dec. 29 and 30: 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Dec. 31: 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Jan. 1: 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. Elsewhere in Pasadena Rose Palace: 835 S. Raymond Ave. Hours: Dec. 29-31: 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Jan. 1: 9 a.m. - 1 p.m.

In case a huge parade and football game is not enough Tournament of Roses saturation for you, a week of Rose Bowl-related family activities will be offered beginning today. For $1 per person per location, or $2 per person for two or more locations, enthusiasts can see the Rose Parade floats being decorated. They can also, for another $2, see the Rose Bowl stadium before the big game, decked out in the colors of the two Rose Bowl teams, Penn State and the University of Oregon.

Lathrop K. (Lay) Leishman, a former president and grand marshal of the Pasadena Tournament of Roses who is credited with obtaining the Tournament House headquarters from the Wrigley family half a century ago, has died. He was 91. Leishman, who was often called "Mr. Rose Bowl" or "Mr. Pasadena," died Thursday in Pasadena. He was president of the Tournament of Roses in 1939 and served as grand marshal of the New Year's Day parade in 1979.

At 9 tonight, about three hours after the Rose Bowl game has ended, another high-pressure game begins. The stadium's world-class grounds crew will "scalp" the existing field, cutting the grass to a mere quarter-inch, then roll out a brand-new field on top. The goal: to ensure the playing surface for the Bowl Championship Series title game Thursday is equally lush and pool-table smooth. It will mark the first time two new fields have been installed at the stadium for consecutive games (a new one was installed after UCLA's last home game Nov. 21)

Within hours after the Oregon and Ohio State football teams march off the field following the Rose Bowl game in Pasadena, crews will tear out and replace the turf to prepare for the BCS national championship matchup between Texas and Alabama six days later. But no one in Pasadena is complaining about the cost of the turf. This January marks the first time under a new rotating collegiate bowl system that Pasadena will host two major bowl games in a week. The Rose Parade on New Year's Day and the two bowl games could draw nearly 1.2 million people to the city of roses -- and tens of millions in tourism dollars.

The Rose Bowl brain trust doesn't publicly cheer for schools but it can shake 100 pompoms for number sequences, and the dream countdown for this season's two-game extravaganza is, without question, 4-3-2-1. It's also the countdown to the end for Rose Bowl Chief Executive Mitch Dorger, retiring after this season's Bowl Championship Series title game on Jan. 7. What a way to bow out: No. 4 playing No. 3 in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1 and, six days later, No. 2 putting rose petal to the metal against No. 1. It could happen.

Welcome to the Rose Bowl of the future, a place where the Utahs, Brigham Youngs and Hawaiis of the college football world are welcome. Sort of. According to a modification in the Bowl Championship Series rules, the Tournament of Roses could be forced to take a non-BCS team in the next few years.

The year is new, college football has gotten old. There's a hockey game in town, so you put on a T-shirt and flip-flops and head to . . . The Rose Bowl. Go ahead, laugh. It's not entirely a fantasy. NHL executives, justifiably proud of the Winter Classic game at Chicago's Wrigley Field on New Year's Day, have been brainstorming about potential sites for future outdoor games.

Oregon State can clinch its first Rose Bowl berth in 44 years with a win against Oregon on Saturday in Corvallis -- everyone knows that. But can Oregon State still get to the Rose Bowl with a loss? The answer, drum roll please, is . . . "yes," and we'll explain the tiebreaking procedures after explaining how ticked off the Rose Bowl would be having to stage a rematch game between Oregon State and Penn State.

Isaac Richard berated his Pasadena City Council colleagues Tuesday after they gave final approval to the reconfiguration of the board that governs the Rose Bowl stadium. In the opening minutes of Tuesday's regular meeting, the council voted to change the way members of the Rose Bowl Operating Co. Board are selected and to allow the new nine-member panel to set policy, rather than simply advise the council on the city-owned stadium. Richard was absent when the council voted.

A few months after the slogan "presented by AT&T" was attached to the annual Tournament of Roses football game, officials flirted Thursday with the idea of placing a sponsor's name on the Rose Bowl. The board of the Rose Bowl Operating Co., the stadium's governing body, on Thursday considered a "name rights proposal," the first step toward giving the famous Arroyo Seco landmark a new identity.

If Karl Dorrell is hired at Duke, the former UCLA coach would move his home base from one Rose Bowl stadium to the other. . . . In 1942, amid West Coast blackouts in the weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Rose Bowl game was played at Duke Stadium in Durham, N.C., the only time the game has been played outside Pasadena. . . .

Every second Sunday of the month, bargain hunters and antiques collectors gather in Pasadena for the mother of all flea markets. With more than 2,500 vendors, it's easy to get lost in the sea of vintage lamps and Levis, so first-timers may want to find a seasoned shopper to show you around (in my case: thanks, Geoff Clark!). Heading there this weekend? Set a budget, wear comfortable shoes and get there early -- you'll pay a higher entrance fee ($20 between 5 and 7 a.m. versus $8 after 9 a.m.