[Updated] City officials confirmed Friday that Kroenke Sports & Entertainment and SoFi Stadium have been added as defendants in Pasadena and the Rose Bowl Operating Company’s lawsuit against UCLA, escalating the legal fight over the university’s plan to move home football games away from the city-owned stadium.
The amended complaint was filed late Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
According to a statement issued by the City of Pasadena just after noon Friday, the filing “fully details the additional facts and legal reasoning behind the new claims.” The city said SoFi Stadium and related entities were added for “tortious interference with the UCLA lease agreement,” while two new claims against UCLA were included: “an equitable claim and a claim for lack of good faith and fair dealing.”
“As the City and the RBOC have stated from the outset, they seek only to have a public institution—UCLA—live up to the terms of a lease agreement that it willingly signed in 2010 and again in 2014,” the city statement read. “We remain confident in our legal standing and in the ultimate result of this matter and look forward to hosting the UCLA Bruins for decades to come.”
The lawsuit underscores Pasadena’s effort to protect the Rose Bowl, a civic and economic cornerstone, from losing UCLA football games that have long tied the university to the city.
Get our daily Pasadena newspaper in your email box. Free.
Get all the latest Pasadena news, more than 10 fresh stories daily, 7 days a week at 7 a.m.
