Rose Bowl Chief Executive to Discuss Stadium’s Long-Term Planning at Wednesday CityTalk

Rose Bowl Operating Company Chief Executive Officer Jens Weiden will discuss the stadium’s long-term strategic planning and the immediate challenges facing it during an online CityTalk program at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 2, hosted by Pasadena City Council District 2.

Councilmember Rick Cole, who represents District 2, announced the program Aug. 26.

The Rose Bowl is owned by the City of Pasadena and run on the city’s behalf by the Rose Bowl Operating Company, which also operates the Brookside Golf Complex.

Weiden has led the company since July 2022, when he succeeded retiring longtime General Manager and Chief Executive Officer Darryl Dunn. On his selection, he said the goal was to keep the Rose Bowl campus a “point of pride for the community.”

The company’s fiscal 2027 budget, brought to the city’s Finance Committee in May, totals $92.9 million and carries a $9.9 million capital budget. The company reports that the stadium and the golf complex face increased operating costs, and calls the long-term challenges facing the stadium significant, particularly with respect to “identifying long-term capital funding for the Stadium.”

CityTalk webinars and Issue Forums are both moving to Wednesday evenings beginning in September, Cole said, attributing the change to the City Council’s decision to shift its regular meetings from Monday evenings to Tuesday evenings. Interim City Manager Matthew E. Hawkesworth confirmed the council’s move Aug. 27. Cole has held CityTalk on the first Tuesday of the month.

Need to know: CityTalk: The Future of the Rose Bowl, with Rose Bowl Operating Company Chief Executive Officer Jens Weiden, takes place Wednesday, Sept. 2, at 7 p.m. The program is held online; join at us02web.zoom.us/j/83862664724. For more, call City Council District Liaison Megheti DerBoghossian at (626) 744-4742 or visit cityofpasadena.net/district2.