Rose Bowl to Cut the Ribbon Thursday on Its New $20 Million+ Field Club

The Rose Bowl Legacy Foundation and Pasadena’s city-owned Rose Bowl Stadium will hold a private ribbon cutting Thursday, Sept. 10, for the new South End Zone Field Club, the venue’s first field-level premium seating.

The event will cap a multi-million dollar project that broke ground in January and adds nearly 1,000 field-level seats.

The Legacy Foundation says the club gives the stadium field-level premium seating for the first time, seats more than 750 in VIP club seats beside an outdoor patio, and is designed to keep the stadium’s elliptical shape when seen from above. Teams will enter the field through the club. The foundation says the space will also generate new revenue for the stadium.

UCLA, which sells the seats, describes the club as limited to about 1,000 members with a private air-conditioned lounge at field level.

“Every enhancement to the stadium that we make must honor what makes the Rose Bowl special,” Brozino said in the January announcement.

The club is the largest piece of the Lasting Legacy Campaign, which the foundation says is funded by privately raised money along with contributions from the stadium’s third-party rights holders and partners, vendors, government grants and the operating company. LAist reported the campaign covers eight projects running through 2029, with three finished, three including the field club due in fall 2026, and the last two — added legroom and a larger videoboard — still needing an estimated $45 million to $50 million.

The stadium belongs to the City of Pasadena and is run by the Rose Bowl Operating Company, a non-profit public benefit corporation the City Council created in 1995 and which the city accounts for as a distinct component unit. The company’s draft fiscal 2027 budget projects $92.9 million in gross revenues and a $9.9 million capital plan that includes a planned $7.5 million in Lasting Legacy south end zone work. Legacy Foundation transfers and grants to the stadium total $35.8 million to date.

The opening comes with UCLA’s tenancy unsettled. Pasadena and the operating company sued the University of California Regents on Oct. 29, seeking to enforce a lease that runs through June 30, 2044, after alleging the university moved toward relocating its home games to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. City officials say taxpayers backed more than $150 million in stadium renovations and about $130 million in refinanced bonds, and the complaint puts potential damages above $1 billion. UCLA has confirmed it will play the 2026 season at the Rose Bowl but has made no commitment beyond it. The parties were set to return to Los Angeles Superior Court on Sept. 2 for a case management conference before Judge Joseph Lipner.

The Rose Bowl Quarterbacks Club will hold its 2026 five-event speaker series in the new club.

The stadium listed Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, Rep. Judy Chu, Rep. Laura Friedman, Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo and state Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez among those expected, along with UCLA Athletic Director and Chief Executive Tim Harris, Pro Football Hall of Fame members Ronnie Lott and Warren Moon, former UCLA and U.S. soccer player Cobi Jones, former NFL player Marcedes Lewis, broadcaster Neil Everett, radio host Adam Carolla, National Football Foundation Chief Operating Officer Matthew Sign, Rose Bowl Legacy Foundation President Dedan Brozino and Rose Bowl Stadium Chief Executive Jens Weiden.