College officials see money.
For the first time since 1942, the Rose Bowl football game will not be played in Pasadena, California. Because of a major outbreak of COVID-19 in the Los Angeles and Southern California area, the organizers of the Rose Bowl game decided it would be in everybody’s best interest to get the game out of Pasadena and move it to a safer area. That safer area is Arlington, Texas where money can be made because Texas officials are allowing a limited number of people to attend games. The problem in Texas is the same as California, COVID-19 containment has not been achieved and hospitals are not able to keep up with the growing number of people who have gotten very sick after catching the virus. Rose Bowl officials also claimed that they could have easily hosted the game but “the well-being of the student-athlete needs to come first and that continues to be our top priority”.
California health officials did not want family and friends of the two teams involved in the game in the stadium. But there is a silver lining for the college bosses who apparently like to put money before the health of the “student-athletes”. The game happens to be one of the two semi-final matchups in the College Football Playoffs. The January 1st game can now have people in the stands spending money and some of that will flow into the college football industry and some will flow into the National Football League’s Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones pocket as he runs the Arlington Stadium. It is all about money. The first Rose Bowl Game was played in 1902 and the game was an afterthought. Rose Bowl Parade organizers thought staging a game in Pasadena would help pay the cost of the parade. The COVID-19 pandemic is out of hand but football must be played.