For years, the Rose Bowl has walked the precarious line between tradition and technology, striving to keep up with modern-day venues while maintaining the nostalgic touches that make it a national landmark.
Get ready for one of the most dramatic changes in its 103-year history.
The stadium is undergoing a major overhaul of its south end — the one facing the San Gabriel mountains — that will transform 5,000 underutilized bench seats into a field-level club featuring slightly more than 1,000 VIP seats. The transformation is expected to be finished in time for UCLA football‘s home opener against San Diego State on Sept. 12.
“We honor the past, but we’re going to continue to move into the future,” said Jens Weiden, the Rose Bowl’s chief executive officer. “We never thought to stop this project, no matter what came up.”
Last October, in the wake of UCLA’s threats to terminate its contract with the stadium, the Rose Bowl Operating Co. and the City of Pasadena filed a lawsuit to force the Bruins to honor the remaining two decades of their deal and keep their home football games at the historic venue through 2044.
UCLA is staying put for next season and there are indications the sides could be quietly heading toward a settlement that would keep the Bruins in place for the foreseeable future, ending their flirtation with SoFi Stadium.
Speaking to the media at UCLA’s recent spring game, coach Bob Chesney heaped praise on the Rose Bowl, saying, “To get a chance to walk in here and just feel this … is pretty special, we addressed that last night as a team and made sure we understand the respect that this place deserves and understand the attitude of gratitude we should have.”
The Rose Bowl is confirmed as a College Football Playoff quarterfinal host for next year, although the CFP plans beyond that are less clear. There’s increasing pressure to play early-round games in on-campus stadiums, which are simpler and less expensive to stage. That threatens traditional bowl games.
However, the Rose Bowl has television numbers on its side. The Jan. 1 game between Indiana and Alabama generated gargantuan ratings, even with the Hoosiers winning in a blowout. Still, considering how fluid college football has been in recent years, it’s hard to predict what the landscape might look like in two or three years.
Even with that uncertainty, the Rose Bowl is leaning into its strengths of embracing nostalgia while keeping up with the times.
“A lot of people look at the Rose Bowl as a piece of art,” Weiden said. “I look at it more like a museum where the art hangs. You have to make the museum approachable, otherwise nobody comes to see the art.”
The stadium’s new area, called the South Field Club, will cost about $30 million and is part of the Rose Bowl Lasting Legacy Campaign. The funds were generated by sponsorship partners and private donors, not taxpayer bonds as were used for the construction of the Terry Donahue Pavilion from 2011-13.
UCLA did not pay for the space and can focus fundraising efforts on covering NIL and player costs. The stadium operates under a revenue-sharing agreement in which the Rose Bowl takes a percentage of ticket sales, concessions and parking. UCLA keeps all of the revenue generated by the new club.
At the moment, the club is mostly just-poured concrete and steel, so envisioning what it will look like requires some imagination. The plan calls for patrons to walk down a field tunnel and make a left at the groundskeeper’s office before stepping out onto the grass playing surface.
There, an understated reception area — walls lined by photos that tell the story of the stadium — will serve as the entryway to a massive indoor space with a 360-degree bar that mimics the oval of the Rose Bowl itself. Surrounding that will be a dining area that offers a mix of banquette seating, round tables, high tops and lounge furniture. Everywhere you look will be an homage to the craftsman style that’s such a part of Pasadena’s history.
Although there’s a contiguous flow between the indoor and outdoor portions of the club, the areas can also be separated by a seamless glass wall that can be folded back completely into pockets on the side. On hot days, that wall can keep the indoor space air-conditioned.
At the end of the club opposite the reception area, a huge glass garage door can be rolled up so club patrons can watch and hear the Bruins leave their locker room and take the field. A video wall and theater lighting will enhance the experience.
After the game, the club will stay open for an hour to allow traffic to thin out, and club patrons will be able to watch the coach’s postgame news conference through glass panels.
Separating the field club and the existing end zone seats will be two-foot-wide planter boxes that will run the entire curve of the south end. In those boxes, actual roses that will be tended to by stadium staff. Tradition is never out of reach.
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