Conversation with Pasadena FD PIO
Just spoke with Lisa Derderian, the public information officer for the Pasadena fire department, and things don't look good.
"It is a volatile situation at the moment," Derderian said. "I don't think we'll hear anything for a couple days. They're anticipating the fire to run another week."
Though there is a thick plume of smoke directly over Pasadena, Derderian said, the Rose Bowl is not threatened.
"At this point, it's the air quality," Derderian said. "The Rose Bowl is not threatened. Of course this fire kind of has a personality of its own. It's doubled in fire over night. But I can assure you the Rose Bowl won't be affected."
Derderian said the best case scenario would be a decision on Wednesday, though she did not make any promises.
"Just throwing out a date, Wednedsay we hope to have a definite answer," Derderian said. "We're telling businesses, a lot of it has to do with people with existing medical conditions. Asthma, heart, lung disease.
"The problem is we have no wind. That's good for firefighting, but bad for not blowing the air out".
Jon,
Have you heard of any makeup dates tossed around if the game is postponed? I'd imagine December 5 could work although depending on how the season goes, that could be a sparsely attended game.
Moreover, would they dare consider moving the game to Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego? The Chargers play the Niners Friday night in an exhibition game so the Q would be available Saturday night. Further, the Aztecs don't exactly pack fans into the Q so many seats would be available, many a Bruin fan would make the 2 hour roadie down to San Diego, and the Bruins could take whatever gate revenue was there after SDSU's game day costs are covered. Just a thought but it would be nice to not have to deal with a make up game late in the season.
I don't think they'd move to San Diego for the game, they haven't said anything about it. From what I gather, the game would be pushed back to early December.
JG
A Sunday game at the Coliseum would work great. Keep the game in LA, it would be the first time since '81 that the Bruins called the Coliseum home and it would be the only football available on Sunday. No preseason games or other college football and most have Monday off for Labor Day so it wouldn't be like "argh, I have work tomorrow". There would be a larger TV audience for sure and an easier drive for most that were planning on going to the Rose Bowl anyway. What do you think?
Ticketing for Qualcomm or The Coliseum would be a nightmare on such short notice. The burn area is sort of moving away from the Rose Bowl at this time, (partially on account of there being a whole lot less left to burn) so my hope is that the game is moved to 7:00 to minimize the effect of any lingering airborne particulate matter with the evening moisture. Moving it to December 5th would be awful.
Besides, do you really want to go hang out at SUC any more than you have to?