Pasadena, Calif. - The Tournament of Roses parade precedes the Rose Bowl. Fans once cheered on ostriches and an elephant v. camel race. The venue used to print its own currency, and you could get in for 2 bucks once upon a time.
These days the stats are no less fascinating.
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Here's a sneak peek of the field, the locker room UGA will use and other cool nooks and crannies in this storied venue:
The field is a rye/Bermuda mix created in November/December especially for the Rose Bowl. It's grown elsewhere and shipped to the stadium in 700-foot rolls weighing 75,000 pounds. Crews use 340 gallons of paint to customize the field, 300 in the end zones for each team name and 40 in center. Representatives from each team oversee the paint colors to ensure accuracy.
Inside, the teams are accorded identical amenities in their respective locker rooms. If Team A makes a request for a certain item, the Rose Bowl makes it available so long as Team B has the option of receiving it as well.
The present-day Rose Bowl seats about 90,000 people. Its previous iteration, completed in 1922, sat 57,000.
Radio broadcasts started in 1926. World War II moved the game to the Duke University campus in 1942 for one game only. The annual Rose Bowl resumed in Pasadena in 1946. The following year saw the first local telecast and 1968 marked the first live satellite beaming of Rose Parade and Rose Bowl Game around the world.
The first Super Bowl to be played there was in 1977.
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