Trading Tradition for Luxury? The Rose Bowl and the City of Pasadena Sue UCLA Over Rumored and Seemingly Impending Move to SoFi

By EJ Thomsen  | 10 Nov, 2025

The Rose Bowl has been the home of the UCLA Bruins for 43 years. (LA Times)

The Situationship Too Far From Home 

During late October, the L.A. Times reported a groundbreaking story, claiming that the City of Pasadena along with the Rose Bowl Operating Company have filed suit against UCLA for the alleged discussions of moving the UCLA Football home games site from the long-established relationship of the Rose Bowl to the newly constructed SoFi stadium in Inglewood. In 2014, UCLA, the Rose Bowl Operating Company, and the City of Pasadena agreed to extend the lease and contract to have UCLA Football play there until 2044. Understandably the Rose Bowl is upset, as millions of dollars of prior and planned investments have been made to improve the quality of experience at the Rose Bowl. 

"This lawsuit arises in an era when money too often eclipses meaning and the pursuit of profit threatens to erase the very traditions that breathe life into institutions … Some commitments are too fundamental to be traded away." Statement issued by the City of Pasadena

Yet, UCLA’s wandering eyes do not come without warrant. Between 2021-2024, the Bruins have seen record low numbers averaging around 32,500 scanned tickets. With the Rose Bowl having a maximum capacity of 90,000 seats, UCLA is selling out just a third of the seats that it potentially can. Adding on additional fees such as parking, live events outside the stadium, staff, student transportation, stadium maintenance, etc., logistically it does not seem like a successful business model. How can you blame UCLA Athletics for looking for solutions to a high priority problem such as maximizing revenue from their underperforming number one source of income? 

History of the Situation 

In 1921 plans were proposed to build a stadium on top of the temporary seating at Tournament Park. This plan of having a wide open stadium such as those found at the Yale Bowl transitioned into action in the beginning of 1922, and the Rose Bowl was finished later that year. Although USC was the first team to play there in a game versus Penn State in 1923, UCLA made it their home in 1982. The Rose Bowl has hosted some of UCLA’s greatest moments, such as UCLA’s nail biting 20-19 comeback win versus USC in 1982, Deshaun Foster's five touchdown game in 2001, Maurice Jones-Drew’s 322 yard rushing game in 2004, and UCLA’s historic comeback victory versus Texas A&M where Josh Rosen threw for 491 yards and 4 touchdowns in 2017.

Super Bowl XXI was hosted at the Rose Bowl in 1987 as the Giants beat the Broncos 39-20. (Los Angeles Daily News)

It does not stop at just UCLA’s legacy when it comes to college history, as the Rose Bowl is one of the most renowned bowl games in existence, only reserved for the best of the best. The game was famously coined the “Granddaddy of Them All.” Introducing the College Football Playoff has further thrusted the Rose Bowl into the spotlight, as it is one of the four venues to host a quarterfinal game on New Years Day. The Rose Bowl’s legacy does not even stop at college sports as it has hosted five Super Bowls, two World Cups, the Olympics, and countless concerts. Having the Rose Bowl intertwined with UCLA’s identity has historically brought and will continue to bring international and local prestige, one must truly wonder why  UCLA has had so many problems recently. 

The landmark move of the Raiders moving venues from Oakland to Los Angeles fortunately pushed UCLA out of the Coliseum that both UCLA and USC shared. Initially, the three football teams were supposed to share the field, but the blatant favorable treatment that the  Raiders and USC received made then chancellor Charles E. Young extremely dissatisfied, who claimed it was a profound betrayal. As UCLA sought to find a new permanent home, it needed to provide some very necessary requirements. The venue had to give UCLA their own identity, aside from the identities of the Raiders and USC, more beneficial financial terms than those proposed at the Coliseum, and enough space for tailgating. The Rose Bowl solved all of these problems as it became synonymous with Bruin Football and allowed the fostering of a  successful business relationship between the Rose Bowl Operating Company, the City of Pasadena, and UCLA. The Rose Bowl is also located adjacent to the Brookside Gold Course allowing for large amounts of parking to be available and room for large events outside of the stadium. Some criticized the move, as it would increase the drive from UCLA to their home stadium from 15 miles to 26 miles. With LA traffic under consideration, this could possibly take students anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half to go watch the Bruins take the field. But with no feasible plans to build a stadium in or close to Westwood, UCLA decided to call the Rose Bowl their new home, changing their legacy from being USC’s nagging little brother to creating their own nationwide identity that is worthy of being synonymous with the Rose Bowl. 

Frustration Boiling Over 

It is no secret that UCLA has been struggling to fill out the stadium the last couple of years, but this has been a lingering problem ever since the turn of the millennium. Before the 2014 lease re-signing between the three parties, the 2000s and early 2010s did not see the same success from a business and national standpoint. UCLA’s rival, USC, under head coach Pete Carroll, went on a legendary run from 2001-2009 where the Trojans won two national championships and boasted household names such as Heiman winners Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart, the great Troy Polamalu, and NFL quarterback Carson Palmer. All of this attention and success was focused on USC, leaving UCLA to have notable games and players themselves but to ultimately get overlooked, as this was the first time that UCLA attendance dipped to approximately 40,000 attendees. This unfortunately carried into the 2010s as even the hiring of a new head coach, Jim Mora, and the commencement of the Brent Huntley era, taking the college football landscape by storm in 2013-2014, where the Bruins finished 10-3 both years, and being ranked as high as the #7 team in AP Polling in 2014, wasn’t enough as UCLA still found that they were only averaging around 40,000 attendees. Following this small period of success, Mora’s successor, Chip Kelly, destroyed his name-sake as UCLA’s head coach as he led the Bruins to a combined 7-17 from 2018-2019.

Chart of expected attendance to scanned tickets for the 2021-2024 seasons. (The Mighty Bruin)

Simultaneously at the low of UCLA’s on-field success, two major events happened which can be associated with the university’s current sense of urgency to find a new home. The emergence of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deals and UCLA’s transition from the Pac-12 to the Big 10. These are not just coincidentally related to UCLA’s stadium problem, but the primary forces found at the middle of this debacle.

The introduction of NIL has fundamentally changed college sports to its core. Historically, college football programs have tried to entice and incentivize new recruits through team legacy, tradition, coaching prestige, and top-of-the-line facilities. Now, players are fiscally entitled to the success that they bring to the program, as now programs must also provide reliable pathways to build their personal brand and to sign endorsement deals. In this new landscape of college football, visibility, branding, and public perception are now just as important as on-field performance. UCLA Athletics has become increasingly aware that the football program, the crown jewel of every college’s athletic program, needs to project a national identity that is capable of meeting the standards set across the conference. Ohio State, Penn State, Oregon, Washington, and now Indiana have all capitalized on their football program’s success to become national household names. The Rose Bowl, while historically significant, has not kept up to pace in the NIL era as college football is now selling an entertainment-centric product now expected by fans, new recruits, and media audiences. Over the course of the 2021-2024 seasons, two games eclipsed the 60,000 attendee mark. USC in 2022 and Colorado's famous 2023 team featuring Shadeur Sanders and Travis Hunter. As previously mentioned, they only averaged 32,500 attendees over this time, which is only a third of the possible seats they could fill up. College programs need money to go out and get big names from the transfer portal, or from high school. so that fans are excited to see them play and come out and watch. Having your main revenue source annually be in the red is not a good recipe to compete in a marketplace where financial advantage can be maximally utilized. 

At the same time, UCLA’s move from the Pac-12, a conference primarily consisting of west coast powerhouses, to the Big 10, a conference that rivals the skill and championship legacy of the SEC, has intensified the need to have high public image and funding to ensure the viability of UCLA Athletics in the long run. A relationship that began in August 2024, the Big 10’s media rights deal supplies UCLA Athletics with around $70 million annually. Moving into a conference of the caliber of the Big 10, with powerhouses like Ohio State, Indiana, Oregon, Washington, and Michigan, places UCLA in direct competition with them both on the field but also in national marketability, alumni engagement, and other various resources. To compete on equal footing, UCLA has to follow suit and maximize the potential revenue avenues, including ticket sales, sponsorships, media appeal, such as Pat Macfee’s “College Gameday,” and parking. In this context, the exploration of other stadiums, and more specifically SoFi Stadium, is less about a betrayal of rejecting tradition at the Rose Bowl and more about navigating the new frontier of economic realities that UCLA finds itself in. 

Nico Iamaleava is UCLA’s star NIL signing from the 2025 offseason, a move that needs to continue in order for UCLA to stay competitive. (UCLA Athletics)

Present-Day Tensions 

On October 29, 2025, the City of Pasadena and the Rose Bowl Operating Company filed a 200-page lawsuit against UCLA in the Los Angeles Superior Court. The document alleges that UCLA has "unequivocally expressed its intent to abandon the Rose Bowl Stadium” and breached its current lease agreement, which explicitly states that UCLA Football will play their home games at the Rose Bowl until June 30, 2044, by having relocation discussions with SoFi Stadium, the NFL site shared by both the L.A. Rams and L.A. Chargers. A move to SoFi could shake the culture at UCLA. Not only on the field, but most importantly from a financial standpoint as well. SoFi Stadium is located just 12 miles from campus and has a maximum capacity of 70,000 seats. This could bring a better fan experience with less empty seats to incentivize better fan engagement at the game, lesser cost to transport students, and allows the team to play at a nationally recognized stadium. Although critics say that a move to SoFi could destroy the tailgating environment so adored by fans, many believe that this is a necessary opportunity cost UCLA has to make in order to change the trajectory of UCLA Football. 

"The City expects UCLA will honor the terms of the [lease] agreement, and the City Council will do everything in its power to protect and defend the City's contractual rights ... The City of Pasadena and the Rose Bowl Stadium, steadfast partners to UCLA for more than four decades, are extremely disappointed with UCLA's attempt to terminate the lease." Statement issued by the City of Pasadena. 

Terrible attendance at a UCLA football game, symbolizing the straining relations between the parties. (The New York Times)

Along with the Rose Bowl itself being affected, the suit claims that the people of Pasadena are greatly affected by the potential move. The City of Pasadena has invested $150 million of taxpayer money in stadium renovations and have refinanced $130 million in bonds to be allocated to the Rose Bowl all under the assumption of UCLA’s long-term commitment. Both Pasadena and the Rose Bowl Operating Company are claiming damages that could exceed $1 billion, of potential economic and reputation damages, insisting that if UCLA were to breach their contract and leave that it would destabilize the stadium revenue and destroy the local surrounding economy. UCLA has not denied the fact that it has been in talks with SoFi about a relocation plan, but they have denied the fact that any breach of contract has taken place, stating that talks of future relocation does not warrant a breach of contract. 

"While we continue to evaluate the long-term arrangement for UCLA football home games, no decision has been made." UCLA Vice Chancellor for Strategic Communication Mary Osako stated on 10/30/25. 

As of 11/9/25, rumors have started to escalate about UCLA’s move to SoFi, as multiple sources are reporting it is a “near done deal.” This would include an estimated buyout priced around $60-$80 million. This does not include the alleged $1 billion in damages this will cause the City of Pasadena and the Rose Bowl Operating Company, as if UCLA does in fact move, it is almost certain that both parties will continue with the suit against UCLA.  

Remedies 

Finding a path forward between UCLA, the Rose Bowl Operating Company, and the City of Pasadena requires solutions that help the financial pressures they face in this new era of NIL and Big 10 football, while also helping to keep the cultural and economic significance that the Rose Bowl has brought to the citizens of the Pasadena community. 

Logically, there are three possible remedies that could bring forth a resolution. One possible approach would be to renegotiate the terms of the contract, allowing UCLA to collect a higher portion of revenue than before to lessen the economic burden that they currently find themselves in. This could include changes to revenue distribution of parking, ticket sales, sponsorship deals, and even concession stands. If UCLA can increase their earnings at the Rose Bowl with some renegotiation and accounting, then the financial incentive that is pulling UCLA to SoFi will slowly diminish and Pasadena would retain its largest tenant. Another solution would be for UCLA to invest into the modernization of the Rose Bowl. While the Rose Bowl has a long historical legacy, aspects of the stadium have started to show that it was built over 100 years ago. Basic facilities, fan engagement technology such as an awkwardly located jumbotron from the student section perspective, and hospitality infrastructure have all started to fall behind newer stadiums. For reference, it was not until August 2024 that the Rose Bowl had subwoofers for audio, delivering fans with muffled, baseless music to get them excited for the game. A joint redevelopment plan, funded by donors, taxpayer money, corporate sponsors, or a Big 10 media deal, could enhance the experience at the stadium to appeal to recruits, fans, and media outlets. Once again, if UCLA is allowed to implement necessary additions to the Rose Bowl to make it be up to par with newer stadiums, then the economic and increase in fan experience incentives that are pulling UCLA to SoFi are diminished. A third option is to create a relationship with all three parties involved. Have UCLA play the majority of their games at the Rose Bowl, while having primetime or highly anticipated games take place at SoFi Stadium. This framework would satisfy UCLA’s desire to have a NIL friendly broadcast environment and national exposure while maintaining the forty-year identity and economic presence in Pasadena. Though, there has been no recent precedent of a team having two venues as their home stadium, this solution would be beneficial to all parties. 

John Madden wins his most famous Super Bowl at the Rose Bowl, leading the Raiders to a 32-14 Super Bowl victory in 1977. (Los Angeles Times)

Ultimately, any solution has to acknowledge that it is not simply about stadium geography, but about how the economic landscape of college football, and college sports as a whole, have evolved. Ensuring competitive viability while also preserving tradition are not mutually exclusive goals. Of course in recent history, teams such as the Raiders, Chargers, 49ers, and even the Athletics have elected to move away from their traditional home base, where they were  loved and adored by fans, for better economic opportunity elsewhere. But that does not mean it is impossible to happen. The City of Pasadena and the Rose Bowl are showing just how much UCLA Football means to them by filing this lawsuit. The ball is now in UCLA’s court. If all parties want to preserve the historical identity they have cultivated for over forty years, both sides have to recognize each other’s legitimate interests and work in collaboration, not litigation, and find a path that is a win for all involved.