Mike Florio ,
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The Rose Bowl is one of the most iconic venues in all of American sports. It could soon be losing an anchor tenant.
And the powers-that-be in Pasadena have filed a lawsuit to stop that from happening.
Via Sam Farmer of the L.A. Times , the City of Pasadena and the Rose Bowl Operating Company filed a lawsuit on Wednesday aimed at preventing UCLA’s football program from leaving the Rose Bowl for SoFi Stadium.
UCLA’s lease at the Rose Bowl runs through 2044. The school is accused of “unequivocally expressing its intent to abandon the Rose Bowl Stadium.”
In March 2025, an outside lawyer representing UCLA told the Pasadena city attorney that “preliminary discussions” regarding a potential move “do not constitute a material breach for which [the Rose Bowl Operating Company] would be entitled to a legal or equitable remedy.”
That’s not entirely correct. Although we haven’t seen the civil complaint, it’s likely that the plaintiffs seek a declaratory judgment based on the possibility of an attempted breach of the lease — along with a court order preventing UCLA from ditching the Rose Bowl.
The stadium, as Farmer notes, is 26 miles away from the UCLA campus. For 2025, four home games have attracted an average attendance of 35,253. If that pace continues, it will be a record low attendance for the season.
It doesn’t help that the team generally stinks. Either way, UCLA has a long-term lease. Unless there’s a legitimate way to exit it early, UCLA is stuck. It’s smart and appropriate for the city and the Rose Bowl Operating Company to seek legal relief aimed at keeping the football program from ignoring its contractual obligations.
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