LA Times’ Bill Plaschke reports:
“Ninety-seven percent of my collective experience says the news about USC’s negotiations with the Rose Bowl — leaked in the middle of the most contentious week of the college football season — is simply a negotiating ploy.
In attempting to gain control of a Coliseum that their football program has kept alive for years, USC officials have grown weary of dealing with a Coliseum Commission that works at the approximate pace of gravy, with missions as varied as stuffing.”
I mean, I CANNOT even fathom USC Trojans play anywhere else less the Rose Bowl. I mean, are people crazy?
And yes, Coliseum folks. You’d be out of your fuckin’ mind to let USC go somewhere else. Not that we would ever abandon our traditions, but dude, think about this for a second. You lose us, you lose, what 90% of your business? The money coming in to the area is now going somewhere else? Talk about taking the neighborhood down with the ship.
I hope Bill is right. That the leaked news about negotiation with the Rose Bowl is all smoke screen in attempt to move the negotiation along.
ETA: USC alumni gets this email from Mike Garrett on the subject, confirming that this is NOT a negotiation tactic but frighteningly a hard fact. LA Times is all over this plus the full text of Garrett’s letter.  Â
But hey, USC has enough bajillionaire alumni on our roster. Wouldn’t someone want to take this over and just buy out the Coliseum and just shove them bureaucratic jerks to the corner?
I mean, I don’t think we’d mind the George Lucas or Rick Caruso Memorial Coliseum, or Oakley or MySpace Memorial Coliseum? Heck, Ed Roski and Jerry Buss, between you guys you already own (or partly own) two professional teams in LA, how about one more? Edward Roski or Jerry Buss Memorial Coliseum has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?
Did you get the Mike Garrett email that went out to alumni? I posted it on my site. I don’t think it’s a ploy AT ALL.
I’m not sure if you are a student, an alumni, or a fan, but the Coliseum Commission has been hoping for an NFL team for ages now. The commission wants to renovate the Coliseum by putting in VIP boxes, which would remove approximately 17,000 seats; if we lost that number of seats, this would severely harm the students and fans. The university has been battling with the commission for over 5 years now and they are at the end of their rope. This university isn’t in the commissions best interest, they don’t give a flying rats about us (USC).
I wish the best for USC and the Coliseum Commission at coming to an agreement that suites the fans and the city.
USC Staff – Thank for the input! I am a Trojan alum and I really really hope something gets worked out. It would be a shame to have to go play at the Rose Bowl, blasphemy is more like it.