LOS ANGELES 2028: City of Pasadena OKs LA28 Games Agreement for historic Rose Bowl Stadium

Pasadena's famed Rose Bowl, slated to be a venue for a third Olympic Games in 2028 (Photo: Wikipedia, via Ted Eytan)

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The Los Angeles 2028 organizing committee added an important endorsement from the City of Pasadena on Monday as the City Council approved a motion to allow the City Manager to execute a “Games Agreement” for the use of the Rose Bowl Stadium.

The historic Rose Bowl, opened in 1922 and expanded and upgraded ever since, will join the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in 2028 as venues used for three Olympic Games. For the Rose Bowl:

1932: Cycling, with a temporary track
1984: Football
2028: Football

The City’s staff report on the agreement repeated the concerns voiced loudly by the Santa Monica City Council earlier in October, but Pasadena voiced considerably more confidence in the LA28 organizers:

“The nature of negotiating Olympic agreements at this relatively early stage in the process means that the fiscal impact to the City of Pasadena by hosting the Games is unknown at this time but will be negotiated and developed in supplemental agreements.

“While the City is reasonably confident that it will recover its costs related directly to the provision of Enhanced City Resources, there are no guarantees in the Games Agreement that this will occur. The City’s ability to recover its costs are dependent on several factors, including the ability to secure favorable reimbursement terms in supplemental agreements, the financial success of the Games, and ultimately, the solvency of the OCOG [LA28].

“Despite the financial uncertainties, the City is well-positioned to enter into this Games Agreement. The venue and surrounding infrastructure to support the Games already exist, and the City has a long history of successfully hosting major events at the Rose Bowl, including international and Olympic soccer events, Super Bowls, the Olympic Games and the College Football Playoff.

“As such, in contrast with some other venues in the region, staff does not anticipate the need to fund and to construct capital improvements to support the Games. The primary cost drivers to the City are those to enhance the level of services that will be required to support the Games and related events. These may include costs for enhancements to public safety, sanitation, streets and roadways maintenance, code enforcement, traffic control, and other services that will be defined in supplemental agreements to be negotiated in the coming years.”

A fascinating sidelight to the City Council’s unanimous agreement to move forward was that Pasadena had engaged the well-known law firm of Sheppard Mullin for assistance, the same firm which is advising Santa Monica. This was referenced in the Santa Monica City staff report.

The Pasadena report further noted another item which had been issue of discussion in Santa Monica:

“The OCOG generally prefers to maintain uniform contract terms in its Games Agreements with its venue cities; however, City staff has negotiated several contract modifications that allow for greater City authority or input in decision-making, operational flexibility, and fewer ambiguities in contract language.”

This is apparently the fifth agreement with Southern California Olympic venue cities for LA28, beginning with Los Angeles:

2021 (Nov.): City of Los Angeles
2024 (May): City of Carson
2024 (May): City of Long Beach
2024 (Jun.): City of Inglewood
2024 (Oct.): City of Pasadena

There will be many others ahead and the Games Agreement with each city will be followed up with others:

● Enhanced City Resources Master Agreement, by 1 October 2026
● Venue Use Agreement, by 31 December 2026
● Venue Service Agreement, by 1 October 2027

The City Report noted that there are expected to be significant economic benefits from hosting the Games, but also for the future of events booking the Rose Bowl:

“It is anticipated that the economic impact from hosting the Games at the Rose Bowl Stadium will be substantial to the City, the Rose Bowl, and the local and regional community. Hosting the Games presents a unique opportunity for the City and the Rose Bowl Stadium to continue its storied history of hosting international soccer matches, which has included the Olympics, the COPA America, the national teams of United States, Brazil, and Mexico, as well as European club teams. Hosting the Games will once again elevate the City’s profile on a world-stage and position the City and the Rose Bowl to host future large-scale events.”

Observed: It will be interesting to see if the Pasadena approval, using the same outside counsel, has any impact on the thinking in Santa Monica. There are considerable differences between the cities; Pasadena (about 132,000 population) has long experience with major events at the Rose Bowl as well as the annual Tournament of Roses Parade.

Santa Monica (population 89,000) has no such experience, and is not promoting any in-city venues for the long-term and a strange economic impact study commissioned by the city could only come up with an eight-night, free 2017 concert series spread over nine weeks for comparison to 30 sessions of Olympic beach volleyball across two weeks in 2028.

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