Rose Bowl Concession Contracts to Be Studied

The City Council will decide Monday whether to open the Rose Bowl’s lucrative concessions to bidders, as suggested by a council committee, and ignore a recommendation by the stadium board to grant the existing caterer a 10-year extension.

The Business Enterprise Committee, consisting of three council members, this week abandoned plans to support Service America’s offer to build $2 million in new concession stands in exchange for the extension. Instead, the committee decided to let the Pasadena Unified School District and others compete on the lucrative concessions contract. The decision puts the committee in direct conflict with the Rose Bowl Operating Co. Board.

Councilman William Crowfoot has advocated a plan that would allow the school district to participate. But school officials, after initially demanding that they be allowed to bid on the contract, abandoned that effort when a plan to give the schools a share of new revenues from concessions emerged.

But that plan fell apart this week after UCLA refused to give up its half of the new income, Councilman Paul Little said. Under UCLA’s newly signed contract with the stadium, it gets half of all concessions.