Newport not coming up roses

June Casagrande

NEWPORT BEACH -- Once a hot destination for Rose Bowl tourism, the

city is facing new, bigger challenges in attracting fans, players and

bands from the annual New Year’s game.

Today’s game for the national championship between Miami and Nebraska

marks the first year that teams don’t represent the Pac 10 and Big Ten

conferences. The change -- a part of the collegiate Bowl Championship

Series -- has been devastating for Newport Beach’s efforts to market the

city as a Rose Bowl destination.

“For one thing, the Rose Bowl has become a four- to five-day event,

with activities for those people centered around Pasadena,” said John

Cassady of the Newport Beach Conference and Visitors Bureau.

“Historically, we’ve sponsored pep rallies and provided band practice

space at schools -- things like that. But now it’s a much greater

challenge to market Newport Beach.”

Next year’s game will again host the winners of the Pac 10 and Big Ten

conferences.

The city recently lost a bid with the Tournament of Roses Assn. to

host the game’s teams, bands and media. The four-year contract that

begins in 2003 went to Los Angeles, just as the previous four-year

contract had. Alumni, though, create a separate target market, one that

has netted Newport Beach its only real Rose Bowl dollars this year.

“Our room block is not as large as we would have liked, but we do have

about 60 rooms booked for the four-day period,” said Joe Alegre, director

of sales and marketing for the Hyatt Newporter. Alegre said the crowd,

which was booked by a private tour operator that has worked with the

Hyatt Newporter in the past, is a mix of Nebraska and Miami fans.

The Newport Beach Marriott Hotel and Tennis Club is the only other

place in town accommodating a large group of Rose Bowl visitors, Cassady

said. It is estimated that about 400 Nebraska alumni and fans are staying

at the hotel.

“We need to study how we can be involved in the process and create

tourism for the city during the Rose Bowl,” Mayor Tod Ridgeway said.

“This was the first year of the Rose Bowl as the national championship

and that has hurt a lot of people.”

In past years, the conference and visitors bureau has been lauded for

its work in selling the city to Rose Bowl-goers despite its distance from

the Pasadena game. Particularly because the Pac 10 participation brought

teams from such places as Washington and Oregon, Newport’s

beach-and-boating atmosphere, coupled with low crime, made it an easy

sell.

“But what do you offer Miami that they don’t have there?” Cassady

noted.

In addition, the changes have weakened the usefulness of some of the

city’s well-tended relationships and hard-earned reputation.

“There’s no West Coast representative, no Big Ten representative. Even

with the Big Ten, we were really plugged in with places like Ohio State,”

Ridgeway said. “Everybody was well-aware of the attraction of Newport

Beach, and we’ve lost that.”

* June Casagrande covers Newport Beach. She may be reached at (949)

574-4232 or by e-mail at o7 [email protected] .