\u201cWe honor the past, but we\u2019re going to continue to move into the future,\u201d said Jens Weiden, the Rose Bowl\u2019s chief executive officer. \u201cWe never thought to stop this project, no matter what came up.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778515223_861_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Share via Close extra sharing options <\/p>\n
Los Angeles Times staff writer Sam Farmer provides an update on the renovations that are in progress at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.<\/p>\n
Last October, in the wake of UCLA\u2019s threats to terminate its contract with the stadium, the Rose Bowl Operating Co. and the City of Pasadena filed a lawsuit<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Speaking to the media at UCLA\u2019s recent spring game, coach Bob Chesney<\/a> heaped praise on the Rose Bowl, saying, \u201cTo 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.\u201d<\/p>\n The Rose Bowl is confirmed as a College Football Playoff<\/a> quarterfinal host for next year, although the CFP plans beyond that are less clear. There\u2019s increasing pressure to play early-round games in on-campus stadiums, which are simpler and less expensive to stage. That threatens traditional bowl games.<\/p>\n However, the Rose Bowl has television numbers on its side. The Jan. 1 game between Indiana and Alabama<\/a> generated gargantuan ratings, even with the Hoosiers winning in a blowout. Still, considering how fluid college football has been in recent years, it\u2019s hard to predict what the landscape might look like in two or three years.<\/p>\n Even with that uncertainty, the Rose Bowl is leaning into its strengths of embracing nostalgia while keeping up with the times.<\/p>\n A field-level club featuring more than 1,000 seats is under construction on the south side of the Rose Bowl.<\/p>\n (Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of people look at the Rose Bowl as a piece of art,\u201d Weiden said. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n The stadium\u2019s new area, called the South Field Club, will cost about $30 million and is part of the Rose Bowl Lasting Legacy Campaign<\/a>. The funds were generated by sponsorship partners and private donors, not taxpayer bonds as were used for the construction of the Terry Donahue<\/a> Pavilion from 2011-13.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n A worker walks through a construction zone at the Rose Bowl on May 2.<\/p>\n (Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n 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\u2019s office before stepping out onto the grass playing surface.<\/p>\n There, an understated reception area \u2014 walls lined by photos that tell the story of the stadium \u2014 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\u2019s such a part of Pasadena\u2019s history.<\/p>\n Although there\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s postgame news conference through glass panels.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For years, the Rose Bowl has walked the precarious line between tradition and technology, striving to keep up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2849,3946,5786,16663,8,1473,9,16667,14660,16661,16665,16666,11759,7,16662,16668,16664,1349],"class_list":{"0":"post-27274","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-art","9":"tag-bruins","10":"tag-club","11":"tag-early-round-game","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-history","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-pasadena","16":"tag-place","17":"tag-rose-bowl","18":"tag-side","19":"tag-south-end","20":"tag-stadium","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-ucla-football","23":"tag-understated-reception-area","24":"tag-wall","25":"tag-year"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116556780237084204","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778515224_924_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778515224_505_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n