The UCLA 2016 football season starts drawing tens of thousands of fans to the Rose Bowl Stadium this week. Jim Mora and the Bruins play their first home game against UNLV this Saturday, Sept. 10 at 5 p.m. The Rose Bowl draws a potential crowd of 92,542, and UCLA ticket sales to those diehard fans […]
The UCLA 2016 football season starts drawing tens of thousands of fans to the Rose Bowl Stadium this week.
Jim Mora and the Bruins play their first home game against UNLV this Saturday, Sept. 10 at 5 p.m.
The Rose Bowl draws a potential crowd of 92,542, and UCLA ticket sales to those diehard fans play a crucial part in the stadium’s revenue.
“The Bruins are critical to our success,” said Rose Bowl General Manager Darryl Dunn. “They will be playing their 35th year at our stadium and we are proud to be their home.”
Dunn said with this season’s lineup, he expects the games against Stanford and USC to draw the highest attendance.
“The UCLA-USC game is by far the biggest game due to it being the best rivalry in college sports,” Dunn said. “We always have both Bruins and Trojans fans at the Rose Bowl and it is an incredible atmosphere.”
Pasadena neighborhoods also feel the effects from football game crowds, but not always in a positive way.
Bill Urban, president of the West Pasadena Residents Association, says in the past he’s noticed the impact mainly on the East side of the neighborhood. He said often vendors sell on the street corners where they’re not supposed to. However, he thinks this year might be different because of the Rose Bowl’s new Arroyo Seco Music and Arts Festival coming June 2017.
“The Rose Bowl has been putting a lot of effort into improving things in anticipation of their music festival,” Urban said. “So I would expect things to get better, we expect to see improvements.”
Urban said one thing that would be helpful is for residents to call the Rose Bowl hotline at (626) 397-4141 to report any concerns on gameday.
However, crowds can be a good thing for the local economy.
“It does bring a lot of visitors and those visitors stay in the hotels, eat in the restaurants, shop in the shops, spend money in Pasadena which we appreciate very much,” said Pasadena Chamber of Commerce President Paul Little. “[The Bruins] also play those out of conference games and depending on who they’re playing, that can draw people from other parts of the country
Little said last year’s football games helped boost the economy, and he expects this year to be the same.
“UCLA always brings an economic impact to Pasadena and it’s very difficult to measure one year over the next,” Little said. “Just having them here playing in the Rose Bowl is a very positive thing for us.”
See below for a complete home UCLA home game schedule. For tickets, visit tickets.ucla.edu.
Saturday, Sept 10 vs UNLV
Saturday, Sept 24 vs Stanford
Saturday, Oct 1 vs Arizona
Saturday, Oct 22 vs Utah
Saturday, Oct 12 vs Oregon State
Saturday, Oct 19 vs USC
