Famous Clydesdales to Buck this Year’s Rose Parade

After nearly 60 years of gaiting down Colorado Boulevard, the famous Budweiser Clydesdales will no longer be a part of the Tournament of Roses Parade as Anheuser-Busch InBev moves in a different marketing direction the company officially announced last week.
Reports say the company had told Tournament officials about the pullout in May.
In a statement to local news outlets in St. Louis Missouri Anheuser-Busch said the company was investing in other types of events and sponsorships aimed at a higher concentration of beer drinkers.
The company gave no other information or whether they would reenter the parade again at some point.
Local residents told NBC-affiliated television station KSDK they thought the move was another sign of Belgium-based InBev being more bottom line oriented after taking over Anheuser-Busch in 2008.
“It’s just another feeling about them and they seem more, not as a local company, and more international,” said local St. Louis resident Margaret Gallas.
Anheuser-Busch had been a participant in the parade every year since 1953. Reports say the company’s involvement in the Tournament of Roses can be traced back as far as 1910 when the brewery’s co-founder Adolphus Busch started vacationing in Pasadena. He later started the amusement parks Busch Gardens.
The parade is not the only appearance in Pasadena the Clydesdales make, last year the eight horses also greeted shoppers at the Paseo Colorado Jan. 6 as part of the post parade actives.
Anheuser-Busch is also not the only long time parade participant to drop out of this year’s parade, both the city of Long Beach and the city of West Covina have dropped out.
“This decision has been a very difficult one for our Board of Directors,” said Frank T. Scalfaro, President/Chairman of the West Covina Rose Float Foundation, in a statement. “The community has been very supportive of the float and we do not want to disappoint them, but without the needed funds we have no other option.”
Long Beach city officials also said their decision was a funding shortfall.
Tournament of Roses President, Richard Jackson, said last month the tournament would work with longtime participants to welcome them back if they so choose. He also wished them all the best saying they will be missed in the parade.