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OC Leader Board: The Beauty of the Rose

Editorโ€™s Note: Greg Custer heads the Newport Beach office of Whittier Trust, the West Coastโ€™s oldest and largest family office with $27B+ in assets. The Business Journalโ€™s special report on Companies that Care begins on page 17.

I grew up in Pasadena where my father never wanted to camp out all night on New Yearโ€™s Eve to get a prime spot on the route for the Rose Parade.

Instead, on New Yearโ€™s Day, he would buy a box of doughnuts and search for an overnight camper ready to make a deal. Thatโ€™s how my two siblings and I often got curbside seats to the parade while my parents stood in the background.

The parade dates to 1890 when The Valley Hunt Club members sponsored the first Tournament of Roses. The abundance of flowers in Southern California, even during winter, prompted the club to add a parade before the competition, where entrants would decorate carriages with hundreds of colorful blooms.

The Valley Hunt Club is still a proud participant in the Rose Parade, and I have the privilege of being a member.

Every fall, Pasadena coalesces around what has become one of the worldโ€™s most famous parades and The Granddaddy of Them All when it comes to college football-bowl games.

My friendsโ€™ parents were all volunteers, and I got the bug at age 29 and have been doing it for almost thirty years now.

Managing Tasks

Today, the nonprofit Tournament of Roses Association produces both the Rose Parade and the Rose Bowl Game.

Far from its early days, the Rose Parade draws an estimated 750,000 spectators along the 5.5-mile-long parade route. The upcoming 2025 Rose Parade features 39 floats, 20 bands and 16 equestrian units.

The association has more than 30 committees with nearly 935 volunteers and more than 400 auxiliary members.

Over the years, I took on several tasks, some pleasant and others less so, like managing the port-a-potties, though it was a fun challenge to schedule the delivery for 3,000 units.

For two years, I was the chairperson overseeing inspections of all the floats. We would put each float through three inspections by test driving them on the streets in the early morning hours on Saturdays.

As chair of the TV and Radio committee, I had the honor of having lunch with the beloved KTLA parade hosts Bob Eubanks and Stephanie Edwards. Some of the broadcasters have come and gone over the years, but KTLA, ABC, NBC and Univision are regular broadcasters.

A big new attraction is this is our second year of streaming the parade โ€“ on the Christmas Plus, Fubo and Pluto apps. On these channels, you can watch past Rose Parades and full-length Rose Bowl Games in their entirety.

Great National Platform

The floats generally cost around $500,000 each. We have two professional builders in our community or if the float participant wants, they can build their own float, which is currently the case for six local cities.

The sponsors pay for these floats because they are great platforms to showcase their company or product nationally, and internationally, for 30 seconds in a good family setting.

Last year, the parade was aired on eight networks to an estimated 56 million viewers. The parade was also televised in 174 countries, which attracted an estimated 28 million viewers.

One of the long-time favorites of the crowd has been the Lucy Petโ€™s Gnarly Crankinโ€™ K-9 Wave Maker that featured dogs on surfboards in a wave pool. Whatโ€™s little known was how technically difficult it was because the parade route starts on a hill and the float makers had to lower the water level at the start so it wouldnโ€™t overflow down the hill and then put more water back in once on the flat street.

Itโ€™s an engineering marvel. Alas, the surfing dogs wonโ€™t appear this coming New Yearโ€™s Day.
This year, the parade will showcase an inspiring lineup of floats from City of Hope, Coding for Veterans, Shriners Childrenโ€™s and San Diego Zoo.

My personal favorite float was the 1984 Dr. Pepper float when I was the Boy Scout marching in the parade carrying its Humor Award banner.

The Battle of the Bands

The bands, which apply a year and a half in advance, can spend up to $1 million to participate, which means they must do a lot of fundraising.

We like to have a band from every continent, except of course Antarctica. We always have one from Latin America and usually Asia. Attracting bands from Europe is more difficult because there are fewer marching bands.

For the band members, who are usually in high school, itโ€™s a thrill of a lifetime. For most students, their trip to Pasadena is the first time out of the state and on an airplane. They often get to visit other iconic Southern California destinations like Disneyland, Universal Studios and the beach. For band directors โ€“ itโ€™s often the pinnacle of their careers.

This year, weโ€™ll have military bands from both the Army and Navy โ€“ theyโ€™re celebrating their 250th anniversaries in 2025! The Army will also have its own float.

The Rose Parade is perhaps one of the two most famous in America, alongside the Macyโ€™s Parade on Thanksgiving Day in New York City. The biggest differences are that they have large balloons and highlight the participants at the end of their parade while our cameras focus on the beginning. Weโ€™re also one of the largest floral parades in the world. Our floats are required to have all natural products on them.

The Rose Bowl Game

Then there is the game, which was first played in 1902.

For two years, I was embedded with teams to make sure all their needs were handled. Iโ€™d attend the meetings with teamsโ€™ staff and spent a lot of time with coaches and players at events like the Lawryโ€™s Beef Bowl, Improv, etc.

Last year, I was the host of The Granddaddy Tailgate in a tent outside the stadium. The tailgate party includes representatives from the universities playing in the Rose Bowl Game and first-class food and specialty drinks.

For many years, the Rose Bowl Game featured the winners of the Pac-12 versus the Big Ten. That all changed in the past two decades and the college football championship games were rotated around the country to major bowl sites. We have hosted four college football national championships, including my favorite, the 2006 BCS National Championship Game between Texas and USC.

Modernizing a 102-Year-Old Stadium

Built in 1922, the Rose Bowl Stadium has been designated a historic landmark, which limits our ability to improve it. That will soon change this spring, however, with the beginning of an $80 million renovation that will include private suites and huge television screens at the north end of the stadium. Players and coaches dream about playing in The Granddaddy of Them All. Itโ€™s in a beautiful setting with the San Gabriel mountains in the background often covered with snow.

With the new 12-team College Football Playoff format, weโ€™re not currently looking to compete for a national game; instead, we are content with a quarterfinal or semifinal game as part of the rotation among the New Yearโ€™s Six Bowl Games. This year, our game features the nationโ€™s No. 1 team โ€“ Oregon โ€“ facing the winner of the Ohio State-Tennessee game.

The Camaraderie of Volunteering

Why do I do it?

Itโ€™s the camaraderie of working with your friends, creating something bigger than you are, not to mention it has become a family affair with my wife Inger and children getting to participate in many of the fun events.

Iโ€™ve met a lot of interesting people like Brent Musberger, Vin Scully and Paula Deen. We hosted a dinner with then Alabama coach Nick Saban and his family at the Newport Harbor Yacht Club.

While working alongside some of these national names is something to talk about, itโ€™s the 935 members that keep me coming back and the reason I do what I do. Weโ€™re all in this together to put on Americaโ€™s New Yearโ€™s Celebration.

Over the years, Iโ€™ve been moving up the leadership ranks and now serve on the 14-member executive committee.

Iโ€™m proud to say that Iโ€™ll be president for the 143rd Rose Parade and the 111th Rose Bowl Game on January 1, 2032.

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Sonia Chung
Sonia Chung
Sonia Chung joined the Orange County Business Journal in 2021 as their Marketing Creative Director. In her role she creates all visual content as it relates to the marketing needs for the sales and events teams. Her responsibilities include the creation of marketing materials for six annual corporate events, weekly print advertisements, sales flyers in correspondence to the editorial calendar, social media graphics, PowerPoint presentation decks, e-blasts, and maintains the online presence for Orange County Business Journalโ€™s corporate events.
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