Renderings released last week show a post-NFL renovation plan for the Rose Bowl that is stripped of the additions and adornments that critics found most objectionable in the erstwhile pro-football redesign, the Pasadena Star-News reports.
Gone are the million square feet of shops and lounges; gone as well are the two new concourse levels that would have wrapped around the bowl and the tall stacks of luxury suites that would have loomed over the stadium’s upper lip.
Gone, too, is any notion of a National Football League lease to pay for the work.
“It’s not going to be a Taj Mahal. It is going to be a simpler approach,” said Darryl Dunn, Rose Bowl general manager.
Simpler also means cheaper, but not by much. Estimates put the so-called plan B option at between $250 million and $350 million, depending on the final list of projects. By comparison, the NFL redesign – formerly plan A – was said to cost between $500 million and $600 million.
Dunn said the price estimate includes plenty of padding to account for consultant fees, contingencies and expected inflation in construction costs. Work could begin in 2009.
