Rose Bowl Stadium

The story

The Rose Bowl sits in the Arroyo Seco in Pasadena, an open-air bowl with no roof overhead.³ It lies about 10 miles north-northeast of downtown Los Angeles.³

Over the years it has hosted college football, Olympic soccer, concerts and religious services.^1,3 Opened in October 1922, it holds two honors: National Historic Landmark and California Historic Civil Engineering landmark.^2,3

History

Tournament Park hosted the contest today called the Rose Bowl Game up to and including January 1922.³ The Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association found the temporary stands there could not handle crowds above 40,000, so it set out to build a permanent stadium.³ Architect Myron Hunt designed it in 1921, drawing on the Yale Bowl in New Haven, and construction ran from late February to October 1922.³

The first game there was a regular-season contest on October 28, 1922, when California defeated USC 12–0.³ The stadium was dedicated on January 1, 1923, with USC beating Penn State 14–3.³ Originally a horseshoe, it was expanded over the years, and the southern stands were finished in 1928 to enclose a complete bowl.³ The stadium is still uncovered, so fans sit fully exposed to the weather.³

The City of Pasadena owns the stadium and the adjacent Brookside Golf and Country Club, and the Rose Bowl Operating Company, a non-profit, manages it.³ UCLA and the Pasadena Tournament of Roses each have a member on the company board.³

What to see and do

• The bowl

  The seating has been reconfigured several times, and the field's north–south alignment is offset slightly northwest.³ - **Court of Champions:** At the south end, plaques on the exterior wall list Rose Bowl game records along with coaches and MVP players.³ - **Statues:** Visitors can see a 2017 statue honoring Jackie Robinson, a former Pasadena City College football player, along with a 2019 statue of Brandi Chastain standing beyond the south gate.³ - **Rose Plaza:** A statue honoring longtime ABC broadcaster Keith Jackson was unveiled there in 2019.³ - **1922 Locker Room Museum:** The old locker room was restored in 2017 and turned into a small museum with sections on construction, the bowl games, UCLA football and the Super Bowls played there.³ - **Commemorative bricks:** Donor bricks from the Brick Campaign are arranged by universities in front of the south main entrance.³ - **Brookside Golf Course:** Just north of the stadium, the 36-hole course and club house sit in the Arroyo Seco area.¹

Why it matters

The stadium is home to the Tournament of Roses Football Game and UCLA Bruin Football, and has hosted the Americafest celebration, concerts, religious services and filmings.¹ Over the years, the venue has also welcomed five NFL Super Bowls, soccer contests during the 1984 Olympics, the 1994 Men's World Cup, and the 1999 Women's World Cup.¹ Wikipedia describes the Rose Bowl Game as the oldest of all the bowl games, and notes that the stadium's name gave rise to the term bowl game for postseason contests.³ During the 2028 Summer Olympics, this stadium is set to stage the gold medal finals of both the men's and women's soccer tournaments.³

Getting there

The stadium is at 1001 Rose Bowl Dr, Pasadena, CA 91103.^1,2 It sits in a residential area, and during major events the Pasadena Police Department converts streets to one lane to ease traffic in and out.³