[Updated] The City of Pasadena and the Rose Bowl Operating Company filed a lawsuit Wednesday night seeking to compel UCLA to honor its longstanding agreement to play home football games at the historic Rose Bowl Stadium.
“On Wednesday, October 29, 2025, the City of Pasadena took the unfortunate but necessary step of filing a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court to enforce a lease agreement between the Rose Bowl Stadium and UCLA,” according to a city statement. “That lease agreement is unambiguous, explicitly stating there is no option for UCLA to terminate the lease prior to its expiration in 2044.”
UCLA and the University of California Regents are named in the lawsuit.
According to the city statement, 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.
‘The Rose Bowl has acted with transparency and integrity, not only fulfilling but exceeding its obligations under the lease agreement, investing significant time, effort, and financial resources into the partnership with UCLA, including ongoing major renovation work,” the City statement reads. “The potential economic and reputational damage of UCLA’s attempt to break its lease is significant to the Rose Bowl Stadium, Pasadena residents, and the local and regional economy.”
The City’s contract with UCLA does not expire until 2044.
According to a story in the LA Times, the lawsuit claims that the university has been “unequivocally expressing its intent to abandon the Rose Bowl Stadium and relocate its home football games to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood,” and calls that “a profound betrayal of trust.”
Rumors of UCLA’s desire to leave the stadium for SoFi have spread since the new stadium opened in 2020.
The stadium has fought to stay relevant since the stadium opened.
UCLA is one of the stadium’s primary tenants and has played home games at the stadium since 1992.
According to the Times, the lawsuit also states that it would be devastating to in Pasadena and the stadium if UCLA violated the agreement, and that the harm caused to the city and its residents “could easily exceed a billion dollars (or more),” and that monetary damages could never truly remedy UCLA’s conduct.
“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,” the filing reads.
“Some commitments are too fundamental to be traded away.”
UCLA so far has not filed a formal response to the lawsuit.
However, one exhibit indicates that the matter between the two sides has been brewing for more than half a year.
A letter by the university’s outside counsel David L. Schrader in March said that the university has not violated the agreement and that “preliminary discussions” that contemplate a move “do not constitute a material breach for which RBOC would be entitled to a legal or equitable remedy.”
Schrader wrote that UCLA “continues to evaluate strategic goals and how to be fiscally responsible and best fulfill its mission.”
The lawsuit asks for a court order that requires UCLA to honor the entirety of its lease. “Despite the necessary action taken yesterday, the City of Pasadena and the Rose Bowl Stadium look forward to continued partnership with UCLA for years to come.”
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