Rose Bowl tickets turn out to be a bargain

Rose Bowl tickets turn out to be a bargain

By Fred J. Robledo, Staff Writer
Posted: 01/02/2009 12:00:00 AM PST

PASADENA - You can get just about anything for a bargain this holiday season, and that includes Rose Bowl tickets on New Year's Day.

A man standing just a couple hundred yards from one of the Rose Bowl entrances had a curious smile on his face, ready to play "Let's Make a Deal," with the many ticket scalpers painfully trying to get rid of their Rose Bowl tickets just a few hours before Thursday's kickoff between USC and Penn State.

"It's a buyers market," said the man who wouldn't give his name, but said he lives in South Pasadena. "If you pay face value, you've paid way too much.

"By kickoff I'm hoping to have a ticket for $50. I've never seen it like this. They're selling ($145) tickets for $90 and $100 each and we've still got two hours before the game starts. I'm going to hold out as long as I can."

With an announced crowd of 93,293, there were a lot of deals made, shedding fears that ticket buyers would stay home.

In 2003, when Oklahoma beat Washington State 34-14, only 86,848 attended. That was the smallest crowd since 1944, when during World War II only 68,000 watched USC beat Washington 29-0.

"Thank God Oregon State didn't come," said Jimmy Henderson, a longtime USC fan. "USC in the Rose Bowl will always be a big game."

Not for everyone.

The bumper-to-bumper ride down the Arroyo Seco is filled with ticket scalpers hoping to cash in on the Rose Bowl game, but the slumping economy, and USC's fourth straight trip to the Rose Bowl, where they defeated Penn State 38-24, had most scalpers hoping to break even.
"This is not a good game," said a man walking down the Arroyo Seco flashing tickets. "If I can get rid of these ($145 tickets) for $90 (each), I'll take it."

Another man who claims to have scalped tickets at the Rose Bowl game for more than 20 years was hoping to get face value for his tickets, but was having no such luck.

"It's hard, they want a deal," the man said. "I'm afraid it's going to bottom out by game time."

In addition to the economy, the creation of the BCS (Bowl Championship Series) also played a role in the diminishing ticket prices, turning the Rose Bowl into what many consider a consolation bowl of sorts.

Prior to the first BCS championship game in 1999, The Rose Bowl was a traditional Big-10 vs. Pac-10 game. Normally a Penn State and USC meeting in the Rose Bowl would generate a lot of buzz and increase ticket demand.

But instead of setting its goals on the Rose Bowl game, USC and Penn State were both hoping to play in the Jan. 8 BCS title game in Miami, which has been reserved for Florida (12-1) and Oklahoma (12-1).

The Rose Bowl is still the Rose Bowl, but it certainly doesn't feel like the "Granddaddy of Them All" with players from both teams openly pleased with playing in the Rose Bowl, but not overly excited either.

Earlier in the week, Kurt Autenrieth, a managing partner at Pasadena-based Southern California Ticket Service, a veteran of more than 30 years in the ticket brokering business, said tickets weren't selling like they once did.

There was even a period - Dec. 22 to 24 - when several brokers were selling Rose Bowl tickets for $100 each, Autenrieth said. That was $45 less than face value, and a far cry from three years ago, when the USC-University of Texas championship game fueled prices of $1,000 to $3,000 a ticket, he said.

The $100 minimum was as low as Autenrieth has seen it so far this year. But TicketsNow.com - a division of Ticketmaster - was selling them for as low as $91 a seat, a representative said.

Tom Kiss said he paid $800 for a ticket to the 2006 BCS championship game, which had a $175 face value, between USC and Texas at the Rose Bowl.

"It's kind of funny, there was a guy outside trying to sell four tickets for $2,000 apiece," Kiss said of the '06 game. "I wound up buying my ticket from a girl who was a USC student athlete. There are 77 rows at the Rose Bowl and I was in row 76, sitting right next to (former Rams great) Jackie Slater."

Kiss said he bought tickets from a scalper at last year's Rose Bowl game between USC and Illinois, and paid $100 each.

"The problem was they weren't all in the same place," Kiss said.

"They were cheaper, but we were split up. This year I bought tickets over the internet from a Penn State person. I paid face value ($145) for four tickets to sit in the Penn State section, but at least all of our family is together."

The Rose Bowl bargain-hunting season figures to heat up again next year too. In addition to the Jan. 1 game, the Rose Bowl will also hold the BCS title game a week later.

"I won't be able to afford national championship (game) tickets," said Jerry Jimenez of Whittier, just after purchasing two tickets to Thursday's game for $100 each. "If 'SC is in the (BCS) game, I'll have to figure it out. If they're in the Rose Bowl again, you'll see me right back here again. For a $100 bucks, it doesn't get any better than this on New Years."